Live Updates: Federal Investigators Set to Begin Hearings On D.C. Plane Crash

New York Times

2 days ago

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Federal investigators on Wednesday are expected to begin providing the clearest picture yet of what went wrong earlier this year when an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Airlines regional jet outside Washington, D.C., killing 67 people and touching off a crisis of confidence in air travel safety.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which has spent the last six months investigating the accident, is set to convene the first of three days of public hearings at 9 a.m. Eastern. Federal aviation safety officials, military brass and other parties involved in the crash are scheduled to testify about the events leading up to the midair collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport on the evening of Jan. 29.
The board is also expected to release approximately 10,000 pages of new documents related to the crash at the same time the hearing begins, including transcripts of the cockpit recordings from both American Airlines Flight 5342 and the Army Black Hawk and of the air traffic control transmissions to all aircraft in the area.
The documents are also expected to include a combined transcript illustrating how all of those communications overlapped in real time, as well as factual reports about the air control tower, aircraft and the people involved in operating them that night.
Though the board already issued a preliminary report and urgent recommendations, and the Federal Aviation Administration has already implemented safety measures to reduce the risk of a similar episode in the nation's capital, there are still a number of unanswered questions. They include why an Army helicopter on a pilot evaluation mission flew higher than was allowed in the vicinity of one of the nation's most congested airports, what led to the air traffic control tower being understaffed that evening, and various communication failures that might have contributed to the fatal collision.
N.T.S.B. investigators are not expected to reach any conclusions about the cause of the accident, though the board's chairwoman, Jennifer Homendy, has promised that those, and final safety recommendations, will be issued by next January.
Yet the hearings are expected to present revealing insights into the circumstances surrounding the collision, as aviation safety officials face increasing pressure to implement policy changes to ensure that no such accident can take place in the future.
The marathon hearings have been organized as a series of five panels, each of which will highlight a facet of the circumstances that contributed to the accident. The first will focus on the helicopter's data systems and altimeters, devices that measure altitude. Subsequent panels will address helicopter routes through the airspace surrounding the airport, procedures governing air traffic control training and staffing, technology to help avoid collisions, and how the stakeholders collect and assess safety data.
Some of those issues have already been the subject of considerable federal scrutiny.
In March, the N.T.S.B. released urgent recommendations, calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to permanently prohibit helicopter operations in the airspace around Reagan National Airport when certain runways were in use, and to design alternate flight routes for rotor aircraft. The F.A.A. took the recommendations a step further, permanently closing the helicopter corridor known as Route 4 at all times, and making the zones where helicopters can operate around the airport smaller and farther away.
The F.A.A. has also limited when helicopters on special government missions may fly in the vicinity of the airport without real-time tracking technology turned on, ordering that such flights may take place only if the area is cleared of commercial aircraft. The Army Black Hawk involved in the Jan. 29 crash had that technology, known as ADS-B Out, turned off.
Lawmakers have also seized on real-time tracking technology as an area ripe for legislation. In the last two months, senators have introduced at least three bills that would require nearly all aircraft to have and use technology that allows them to be seen by air traffic controllers in real time, as well as similar technology to allow pilots to receive similarly fast communications from other aircraft and ground operations regarding traffic, weather and other considerations important for safe flying.
The most recent bill, from Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the panel overseeing aviation safety, was unveiled on the eve of the N.T.S.B. hearings, with the endorsement of Ms. Homendy, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Bryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator.
The authors of those bills hope that requiring aircraft to operate with improved tracking technology will improve the chances of avoiding accidents and other near misses, which are a frequent occurrence at congested airports like Reagan National.
In its preliminary investigative report on the crash, the N.T.S.B. noted that there had been 85 incidents between October 2021 and December 2024 in which planes had been less than 200 feet apart vertically. Details of those episodes are unclear, though the hearing may provide additional insight.
But there is near universal agreement that a national shortage of air traffic controllers — along with an outdated air traffic control system — has also put aircraft in greater danger, especially in congested areas.
Earlier this month, Congress approved $12.5 billion to modernize the country's air traffic control system — money that lawmakers and agency officials see as a down payment on what must be a wider overhaul.
Greg Jaffe contributed reporting.