North Dakota Authorities Didn't Warn B-52 Bomber About Airliner: Air Force
Air traffic controllers at a small North Dakota airport didn't inform an Air Force bomber's crew that a commercial airliner was flying in the same area, the military said, shedding light on the nation's latest air safety scare.
A SkyWest pilot performed a sharp turn, startling passengers, to avoid colliding with the B-52 bomber he said was in his flight path as he prepared to land Friday at Minot International Airport.
The bomber had been conducting a flyover at the North Dakota State Fair in Minot, approved in consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Minot International Airport air traffic control, and the Minot Air Force Base's air traffic control team, the Air Force said in a statement Monday.
As the bomber headed to the fairgrounds shortly before 8 pm, the base's air traffic control advised its crew to contact the Minot airport's air traffic control.
'The B-52 crew contacted Minot International Airport tower and the tower provided instructions to continue 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) westbound after the flyover,' the Air Force said. 'The tower did not advise of the inbound commercial aircraft.'
Video taken by a passenger on Delta Flight 3788 — which departed from Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport — captured audio of the SkyWest pilot explaining over the plane's intercom that he made the hard bank after spotting the bomber in the flight path that Minot air traffic control had directed him to take for landing.
'Sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise,' the pilot can be heard saying on the video posted on social media. 'This is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads-up.'
The FAA, Air Force, and SkyWest are investigating. The airliner had 76 passengers and four crew members onboard, SkyWest Airlines said.
It's just the latest flight scare in recent months. In February, a Southwest Airlines flight about to land at Chicago's Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway. That followed the tragic midair collision of a passenger jet and an Army helicopter over Washington, DC, in January that killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft. Those and other recent incidents have raised questions about the FAA's oversight.
And this incident renews questions raised after the Washington DC crash about how well the military communicates with civilian air traffic controllers when their flights share the same airspace.
The FAA said Monday that a private company services the Minot air traffic control tower, and that the controllers there aren't FAA employees. It is one of 265 airport towers nationwide that are operated by companies, but the roughly 1,400 air traffic controllers at these smaller airports meet the same qualification and training requirements as FAA controllers at larger airports, the agency said.
The city of Minot, which owns and operates the airport, didn't comment Tuesday on the Air Force's statement, but said the airport is relying on the different agencies to conduct their investigations.
Phone and email messages left Tuesday for Midwest Air Traffic Control Inc, which provides air traffic control service for the Minot airport, were not immediately returned.
The contract tower program has been in place since 1982, and it has been repeatedly praised in reports from the Transportation Department's Inspector General.
Some small airports like Minot's also don't have their own radar systems on site. In fact, the vast majority of the nation's airports don't even have towers, mainly because most small airports don't have passenger air service. But regional FAA radar facilities do oversee traffic all across the country, and an approach control radar center in Minneapolis helps direct planes in and out of Minot before controllers at the airport take over once they see the planes. The Minot airport typically handles between 18 and 24 flights a day.
Former NTSB and FAA crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said it is common for small airports like Minot to operate without their own radars. He said radars are cost-prohibitive to install at every airport, and it generally works fine for airport controllers to direct planes into landing visually. If the weather is bad, a regional FAA radar facility may be able to help, but ultimately, planes simply won't be cleared to land if the weather is too bad.
Guzzetti, who oversaw one of the Inspector General reports, said the contract tower program has been hugely successful and improves safety at small airports because if they didn't have a contract tower, small airports would be uncontrolled. And he said the safety record of contract towers is similar — if not better — than federal towers.
'We still have to see what happened here. But even if it was a controller screwup, I don't think that should indict or raise questions about the contract tower program. It's been a stalwart,' Guzzetti said.
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Time of India
14 hours ago
- Time of India
Washington Air Crash: How altitude glitch, night goggles & missed warnings led to tragedy
A deadly collision occurred near Reagan National Airport. A US Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet crashed. All 67 people on board died. Investigations revealed misread altitudes and poor communication. Visibility was limited. Air Traffic Control missed warnings. The FAA faced scrutiny for its post-crash procedures. Systemic problems in both the Army and FAA contributed to the accident. FILE - Salvage crews work on recovering wreckage near the site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Va. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Altitude confusion in a no-room-for-error corridor Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Night vision goggles and ground lights Air Traffic Control missed key warnings No alcohol testing, incomplete FAA cooperation Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A broken system or human error? A fatal mid-air collision that killed all 67 people aboard a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial passenger jet near Reagan National Airport in January unfolded through a cascade of small but fatal failures, according to testimony before the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) last over three days, the hearings exposed a mix of misread altitudes, limited visibility, poor communication, and longstanding regulatory oversights. Investigators say these overlapping issues narrowed the margin for error to near January 29, a Bombardier CRJ700 jet carrying passengers from Wichita, Kansas — including elite figure skaters and union workers — collided with a Black Hawk helicopter during its final descent into Reagan Airport, just miles from the White House. The crash was the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. since 2001.A key revelation came from flight tests that revealed discrepancies between two critical altitude instruments onboard the Black Hawk. 'The altimeters showed an 80- to 130-foot difference in flight,' AFP quoted NTSB investigator Marie Moler's testimony, citing the variation between radar and barometric readings. 'Once the helicopter rotors were turning and producing lift and thrust, the altimeter readings lowered significantly and stayed lower throughout the flights.'NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called the finding 'significant,' warning that what the crew saw might not have reflected their true altitude. 'A 100-foot difference is significant,' she said, especially in the tightly regulated Potomac corridor, where helicopters must stay below 200 major factor: visibility. The Black Hawk pilots were flying with night vision goggles that narrowed their field of view and reduced the ability to distinguish the plane's lights from city lights. Experts said this could have made it nearly impossible to visually locate the oncoming aircraft.'Knowing where to look. That's key,' AP quoted Stephen Casner, a human factors expert who previously worked with NASA, as also revealed that an air traffic controller spotted the proximity between the two aircraft and asked the helicopter crew if they had the plane in sight. However, when the controller instructed the pilots to 'pass behind' the jetliner, that transmission wasn't fully heard — the helicopter's microphone was keyed at the same time, cutting off the instruction, according to AP seeing the helicopter from the tower and an alarm sounding, the controller did not warn the jet. FAA officials later admitted the controller should have done transcripts released post-crash, the controller told investigators they weren't sure a warning would have changed the also faced tough questions about post-crash procedures. Nick Fuller, FAA's acting deputy chief of operations, testified that controllers were not tested for alcohol because 'the agency did not immediately believe the crash was fatal' and the optimal two-hour testing window had explanation didn't satisfy NTSB board members. 'There's significant frustration between what's actually occurring and what's being said for public consumption,' said board member Todd officials also scolded the FAA for failing to fully cooperate with the investigation, citing repeated refusals to provide requested documents. Homendy urged the FAA to 'do better,' citing years of ignored warnings about the area's congested helicopter Schiavo, former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General, told AP the crash was the result of systemic problems on both the Army and FAA sides.'The Black Hawks' altimeters could be off by as much as 100 feet and were still considered acceptable,' Schiavo said. She added that the outdated aircraft and "loose supervision" created a dangerous operating also noted that controllers had no visual maps of military helicopter routes on their screens. 'Everything about the military helicopter operation was not up to the standards of commercial aviation,' she told AP. 'It's a shocking lack of attention to precision all the way around.'Schiavo said she still calls the FAA 'the Tombstone Agency,' adding: 'They would only make change after people die. And sadly, 30 years later, that seems to still be the case.'While the NTSB has not yet identified a definitive cause — a final report is expected next year — former crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti told AP that the tragedy reflected a 'Swiss cheese model' of disaster.'It just goes to show you that an accident isn't caused by one single thing,' he said. 'This accident was caused by layer after layer of deficiencies that piled up at just the right moment.'(With inputs from AP, AFP)
NDTV
a day ago
- NDTV
Night Vision Goggles May Have Hampered Chopper Pilots Before Crash With Jet: Experts
The pilots of a US Army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet over Washington in January would've had difficulty spotting the plane while wearing night vision goggles, experts told the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday. The Army goggles would have made it difficult to see the plane's colored lights, which might have helped the Black Hawk determine the plane's direction. The goggles also limited the pilots' peripheral vision as they flew near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The challenges posed by night-vision goggles were discussed at the NTSB's third and final day of public testimony over the fatal midair crash, which killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft. Experts said another challenge that evening was distinguishing the plane from lights on the ground while the two aircraft were on a collision course. Plus, the helicopter pilots may not have known where to look for a plane that was landing on a secondary runway that most planes didn't use. "Knowing where to look. That's key," said Stephen Casner, an expert in human factors who used to work at NASA. Two previous days of testimony underscored a number of factors that likely contributed to the collision, prompting Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy to urge the Federal Aviation Administration to "do better" as she pointed to warnings the agency had ignored years earlier. Some of the major issues that have emerged so far include the Black Hawk helicopter flying above prescribed levels near the airport, as well as the warnings to FAA officials for years about the hazards related to the heavy chopper traffic there. It's too early for the board to identify what exactly caused the crash. A final report from the board won't come until next year. But it became clear this week how small a margin of error there was for helicopters flying the route the Black Hawk took the night of the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. The American Airlines jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, carrying, among others, a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches, and four union steamfitters from the Washington area. The January collision was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the travelling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. Tim Lilley, an aviation expert whose son Sam was a pilot on the passenger jet, said he's optimistic the tragic accident will ultimately lead to some positive changes. "But we've got a long way to go," he told The Associated Press. Lilley said he was particularly struck by the FAA's lack of alcohol testing for air traffic controllers after the crash. "That's pretty disturbing because that's automatic in aviation," Lilly said. "Everybody knows if there's a serious incident, you go to alcohol testing. And they made a bunch of excuses why they didn't do it. None of them were valid. It goes back to a whole system that was complacent and was normalizing deviation." Homendy brought up the lack of alcohol testing during Thursday's hearings, noting that it's most effective within two hours of a crash and can be administered within eight hours. Nick Fuller, the FAA's acting deputy chief operating officer of operations, testified that the controllers weren't tested for alcohol because the agency did not immediately believe the crash was fatal. The FAA then decided to forgo it because the optimum two-hour window had passed. NTSB board member Todd Inman pushed back, telling Fuller that the first two fatalities were confirmed 20 minutes after the crash. "How can you tell me that you released those controllers at midnight, but you didn't know a fatality occurred?" Inman said. Fuller said the FAA officials who make the determination on alcohol testing had not yet had confirmation on fatalities. Fuller said the agency is taking corrective steps and that its drug and alcohol testing process is now being revised. Rick Dressler, an official with medevac operator Metro Aviation, told the board on Thursday it is difficult to identify other aircraft in the night sky around Reagan National, especially if a key onboard locator system was switched off, as Army choppers routinely did. Dressler said that he and other civilian helicopter pilots in the area have long been concerned about the Army and Air Force helicopters flying around Reagan Airport. "I don't like saying this. I'll say it again on the record," Dressler, a former Army aviator and retired Air Force officer, said. "I'm speaking for my group there. We are all very uncomfortable when those two units are operating." The Department of Defense referred questions about Thursday's testimony to the Army, which did not immediately respond. Army officials at the hearing did ask Dressler to elaborate on his concerns and consider visiting the Pentagon to share them. Dressel said part of what worries him is the relative lack of experience of the military pilots who may have only been in the area a short time and don't understand the complex airspace around Washington, DC "They don't get the seasoning here to really, truly understand how the airspace works," said Dressel, who also complained that the Army helicopter unit no longer participates in regular meetings with all the other aviators in the area to discuss issues. The Air Force also did not immediately respond to questions about Dressler's remarks. Hearing testimony has covered much ground, including the final audio communications from pilots aboard the Army chopper. The Black Hawk's crew had been communicating with the airport's control tower, although the helicopter pilots did not fully hear the controller's instructions. The Black Hawk pilots told the tower twice in the minutes before the crash that they had the American Airlines passenger plane in sight and would maintain proper distance. But when the controller instructed the pilots to "pass behind" the jet, the crew didn't hear that instruction because the Black Hawk's microphone key was pressed at that moment. Just before the collision, an instructor pilot aboard the helicopter asked the pilot at the controls to come left. But it wasn't clear if the pilot had time to maneuver the helicopter before the crash. "Kinda come left for me, ma'am," the instructor said. The pilot responded: "Sure." John Cox, an aviation safety expert and retired airline pilot, said the hearings are headed in the right direction to determine what happened and to prevent similar accidents. His main concerns focus on the Black Hawk helicopter, including why it was above the 200-feet (61 meters) elevation limit for that particular helicopter route. Another question is why the Black Hawk wasn't closer to the east bank of the Potomac River, where it would have been further away from landing airplanes. "I've passed helicopters underneath me over the east bank of the Potomac a lot of times," said Cox, who flew commercial airliners for 25 years. "And there's always been plenty of separation. It's not a lot because the space is so constrained. But you're dealing with professional pilots, and it's not been a problem." Investigators said Wednesday the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying.
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- New Indian Express
Handloom artisan weaves miniature tribute to Armed Forces
RAJANNA-SIRCILLA: Imagine a tribute to courage and patriotism so finely crafted it fits into a matchbox. That's what Nalla Vijay Kumar, a Sircilla handloom artisan and Handloom Kala Ratna awardee, has created: a miniature golden shawl woven over 25 days, featuring the emblems of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. Moved by the success of Operation Sindoor and the national solidarity following the Pahalgam attack, Vijay decided to pay tribute to the Armed Forces through his craft. The shawl, small enough to rest in a palm and tucked into a matchbox, was handwoven using traditional techniques and is intended as a gesture of appreciation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on National Handloom Day, August 7. 'This is my way of saluting the bravery of our forces,' Vijay said, adding that Operation Sindoor showcased India's unity and strength to the world.
