06-05-2025
- General
- Irish Daily Mirror
Mid-air crash between plane and helicopter 'would not happen' in Irish airspace
A deadly mid-air collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in the US would never happen in Irish airspace, an air traffic controller has revealed.
On January 29, a Black Hawk chopper crashed into an American Airlines jet over the Potomac River in Washington D.C. killing 67 people.
The tragedy took place while the passenger plane was on its final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia at an altitude of about 100 metres and approximately 800 metres away from the tarmac.
US media outlets have reported that the helicopter was flying too high and that chopper captain Rebecca Lobach did not listen to her co-pilot and flight instructor Andrew Loyd Eaves' calls to change course seconds before disaster struck.
Before the crash, the helicopter pilots were informed there was an aircraft nearby and they then asked air traffic control if they could fly by "visual separation" - which was granted.
This practice means those at the controls of the aircraft rely on their own visual observations to keep their distance from others using the airspace instead of using radar or other instruments.
But Laura Downey, who has nine years of experience as an air traffic controller, says it couldn't happen in Ireland.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, she explained: "The procedures that we operate on, we wouldn't have planes that close to begin with.
"Our operating procedures are different to the ones in the US, those two aircrafts would never be in such close proximity in the first place."
