Hampton University air traffic professor weighs in on tragic DC crash
HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) —There are no clear answers on why that Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 collided Wednesday.
The National Transportation Board won't have a preliminary report for at least 30 days, but one Hampton University professor said he expects the role of air traffic controllers to be reviewed closely.
Midair collision kills 67 people in the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century
A career in air traffic control comes with duties that sometimes result in responding to tragedies like Wednesday's deadly plane crash near Reagan National Airport.
'Our job as the air traffic controller is protect the airspace that the planes are flying in,' said Timothy Johnson, Hampton University assistant professor and AT-CTI program manager.
Hampton University has an air traffic controller degree program. Johnson started his career in 2003 and knows it's a fast paced environment.
'Making air traffic hard in general is just dealing with different types of aircrafts, different characteristics that the aircrafts do,' Johnson said. 'Aircrafts fly at different speeds depending on what they are dealing with, with multiple aircrafts and not a lot of airspace, and aircrafts can't stop in midair, right? So they're going to be flying constantly.'
Johnson said it is common to see military helicopters training at night near civilian airports, and air traffic controllers are used to communicating to pilots for both aircrafts.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the crash at a press conference Thursday morning, with comments on diversity, equity and inclusion and its alleged relation to the event.
At the press conference, a reporter asked the president if there's a reason to think diversity had something to do with this crash. President Trump responded in part by saying, 'I have common sense, we want brilliant people doing this.'
Johnson said all air traffic controllers are equipped to do the duties they are assigned.
'Becoming an air traffic controller, it's intense training,' Johnson said.
Controllers have to do schooling at a certified university like Hampton, and then you have an additional two to four years of training at various facilities before being allowed to work on your own. There have been questions, though, surrounding staffing levels for that tower at DCA during last night's crash.
This investigation into the cause of the crash could take many months to conclude.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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