Helicopter never confirmed view of plane: Ex-NTSB investigator

Yahoo

31-01-2025

(NewsNation) — Crews are continuing search-and-recovery operations Friday in the Potomac River after an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. A key part of the investigation will revolve around the interaction with air traffic control in the final moments before the collision.
According to investigators, the jet was cleared to land at a shorter runway just minutes before at Reagan National. The pilots acknowledged the change as well. Air traffic control also asked the helicopter if it could see the plane and if it could pass behind it, but, seconds later, the crash occurred.
'PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?' An air traffic controller asked the helicopter, requesting it look for an American Airlines Bombardier jet. 'PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,' the controller added, using aviation shorthand to refer to a Canadair Regional Jet.
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Greg Feith, a former senior investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, tells NewsNation's 'Morning in America' that the audio suggests the helicopter crew never confirmed seeing the plane.
'When the air traffic controller called the traffic and said, 'Do you have the RJ in sight?' If you listen to the response, the military crew never said, 'We have the RJ in sight,'' he said. 'They said, 'We have an aircraft, and we have the aircraft in sight.''
Feith noted there were three other aircraft in the area, including a regional jet that had just taken off. He emphasized the importance of analyzing the plane's recovered cockpit voice record to better understand which aircraft the crew was tracking.
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'It's apparent that they did not identify the aircraft that they struck, probably as the traffic that was being called by the air traffic controller,' he said.
As of Friday morning, D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services confirmed the recovery of 41 bodies from the crash site, including all three soldiers who were on the Army Black Hawk helicopter.
Michael Ramsey, Tom Dempsey, Kevin Bohn and Jacqueline Hughes contributed to this report.
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