A Single Air Controller Oversaw Helicopters, Planes During Fatal DC Crash
The second day of an investigative hearing into the collision kicked off Thursday with the US National Transportation Safety Board focusing on how air traffic was managed and the control tower staffed at the busy hub serving the nation's capital.
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'Significant frustration' NTSB members scolded FAA officials during Friday's hearing, accusing them of saying the right things about safety in public while failing to cooperate in private. They said the FAA has repeatedly refused to provide information requested by investigators. Board member Todd Inman said there was 'significant frustration between what's actually occurring' and 'what's being said for public consumption.' Frank McIntosh, the head of the FAA's air traffic control organization, said he would start working immediately to make sure the agency complies with the investigation. McIntosh also acknowledged problems with the culture in the tower at Reagan National, despite past efforts to improve compliance with safety standards. 'I think there were some things that we missed, to be quite honest with you, not intentionally, but I was talking about how certain facilities can drift,' McIntosh said. Homendy told McIntosh she believes agency leaders are sincere about wanting to improve safety, but the solution must be more than just sending a top-down message of safety and also actually listening to controllers in the field. Questions over lack of alcohol testing 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. 'And they made a bunch of excuses why they didn't do it,' Lilley said. 'None of them were valid. It goes back to a whole system that was complacent and was normalizing deviation.' Homendy said during Thursday's hearings that alcohol testing is 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 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. Controller didn't warn the jet FAA officials testified this week that an air traffic controller should have warned the passenger jet of the Army helicopter's presence. The controller had asked the Black Hawk pilots to confirm they had the airplane in sight because an alarm sounded in the tower about their proximity. The controller could see from a window that the helicopter was too close, but the controller did not alert the jetliner. In a transcript released this week, the unidentified controller said in a post-crash interview they weren't sure that would have changed the outcome. Additionally, the pilots of the helicopter did not fully hear the controller's instructions before the collision. When the controller told the helicopter's pilots to 'pass behind' the jet, the crew didn't hear it because the Black Hawk's microphone key was pressed at that moment. 'Layer after layer of deficiencies' Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and FAA crash investigator, told the AP that a combination of factors produced this tragedy, like 'holes that line up in the Swiss cheese.' Any number of things, had they been different, could have prevented the collision, he said. They include the Black Hawks having more accurate altimeters, as well as a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned on or working. In turn, air traffic control could have seen the problem earlier. Just a few feet could have made a difference, Guzzetti said. 'It just goes to show you that an accident isn't caused by one single thing,' Guzzetti said. 'It isn't caused by 'pilot error' or 'controller staffing.' This accident was caused by layer after layer of deficiencies that piled up at just the right moment.' 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