Latest news with #JimBrachle
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Army pauses flights near DCA after aborted landings
ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — The U.S. Army has paused flights near Reagan National Airport after two aborted landings last week due to a Black Hawk helicopter flying near the Pentagon. This comes after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restricted helicopters and airplanes from flying around Reagan National Airport except under rare circumstances. The FAA confirmed three commercial flights had to abort their landings at DCA earlier Monday while a police helicopter was on an urgent mission in that airspace. 'This airport was never meant to handle this large traffic,' said passenger Bill King. 'There's a lot of helicopter traffic coming up and down, so I know that control towers has their hands full.' Police helicopter forces 3 flights to change landings at Reagan National Airport The aborted landings raised even more concerns after the midair collision between an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army helicopter that killed 67 people. 'I think this is kind of a repeat of the problem we just had which caused the tragedy a few months back,' said Aviation Attorney Jim Brachle. 'It's a congested airspace.' 'I think there should better communication between the military… and commercial— I think that needs to be done,' said passenger Arturo Lopez. The U.S. Army commander of the 12th Aviation Battalion directed the unit to pause flight operations around DCA after the close calls on Thursday, two Army officials confirmed to the Associated Press. Two flights abort landings at Reagan National Airport due to Black Hawk helicopter The Army confirmed two commercial aircraft had to abort their landings because of a Black Hawk helicopter flying to the Pentagon. 'Now, the Pentagon's not on that route, it's on the other side of the airport, and so there has to be a deep dive and look at not just that route because that's where the tragedy occurred, but around the entire airport,' said Brachle. Some passengers say they won't let the recent incidents stop them from flying. 'It didn't make me feel fearful or anxious,' said Lopez. 'I still feel that I can trust the airlines and the pilots, but it does make you a little uncomfortable, I would say.' The United States Army says the incidents are under investigation and that it remains committed to aviation safety. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Saudi Gazette
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Disaster happened in 'world's most controlled airspace'
WASHINGTON — The aviation world is struggling to understand how a deadly mid-air collision between a passenger plane and military helicopter was able to happen in what one expert described as "the most controlled bit of airspace in the world".A US Army Black Hawk helicopter with a crew of three collided with an American Airlines jet carrying 64 people seconds before the passenger aircraft was due to land at Washington National aircraft were sent careering into the icy Potomac River on Wednesday exact cause of the crash remains will release a preliminary report within 30 days, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) - which is leading the were able to recover flight data recorders - known as the black boxes - from the wreckage on Thursday, according to the BBC's US news partner CBS. The devices can help investigators pinpoint what led up to a over the District of Columbia is heavily restricted to protect both national security and the buildings that house core aspects of US planes are prevented from flying over the Pentagon, the White House and other historic the area sees a lot of air traffic, Aviation attorney Jim Brachle, who has handled numerous litigation matters related to jets and Reagan airport, told the is commercial traffic but also private aviation and helicopters that fly around the city, often carrying high-ranking officials and politicians between sensitive locations."You got these really narrow pathways in and out and you've got a lot of congestion and extra airplanes, so you're putting a lot of aircraft in a really confined space," he Guzzetti, a former aircraft accident investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the NTSB, told BBC Newshour that it seems the helicopter was in communication with the control tower before the accident. The air traffic controller pointed out the American Airlines flight to the helicopter, he said."The helicopter pilot indicated he had the airplane in sight and was going to visually separate from it – and then the accident happened shortly thereafter - so there's going to be a lot of questions about exactly what did the helicopter pilot see?" Guzzetti Inman, part of the five-member NTSB board, said that DC is also a "unique environment" because of helicopters and specific zones they're allowed to fly."If you look at DC, you see a lot of helicopters going down into this area so there's a very well-defined system in that regard," he could not provide any specifics on altitude of the helicopter before it collided with the American Airlines who has handled numerous litigation matters related to jets and Reagan airport, told the BBC the question that remains is how two aircraft ended up in the same airspace."What's really unique about Reagan is right there on the river. There's also a helicopter route that crosses right through that final approach and that's at or below 200 feet," he said the routes for both helicopters and the approach for aircraft intersect."You're putting potentially two different aircraft in a really small space with hardly any separation," he said. "If you get one that's maybe a little too low, one that's a little too high, you end up being in the same spot."Aviation consultant Philip Butterworth-Hayes said the incident occurred at the "nexus of different aviation systems", including civilian and military systems, as well as procedures specific to the airport."You are at the border of three or four aviation systems here - and it's at those borders where most accidents tend to happen," he UK-based aviation expert John Strickland said the amount of commercial air traffic in the area cannot fully explain why the deadly collision was able to well as Washington National close to the city centre, he notes, there is the international gateway, Washington Dulles, and also Baltimore Airport a little further away."There has to be management of traffic flows to keep separation. It's much like we have in London where you have to manage traffic flows between Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick and London City."So DC is not different in that sense to London or New York... it's not totally unusual."Butterworth-Hayes continued: "This is the most controlled bit of airspace in the world. You have both US government and civilian systems - Ronald Reagan airport is even owned by the government, it's one of the very, very few like that."This really is the most secure - and should be the safest - airspace in the world, given the number of security and civilian safety organisations working in that area."The last fatal crash on a comparable scale involving a commercial plane in the US was in February 2009. Officials and experts alike have stressed that this type of incident is incredibly rare due to tight safety restrictions on all types of obtained from an air traffic control source by CBS News, the BBC's US news partner, showed the two aircraft which appear to have been involved in the crash clearly visible on radar systems accessible to sourced by BBC News appears to confirm the helicopter was in contact with air traffic control on the ground at the helicopter was asked if it had the passenger plane "in sight" and to "pass behind" it. In the audio that follows, controllers appear to realise there has been a collision and can be heard directing other planes in the air to neighbouring said an in-air collision like this requires a number of things going said that in order to fly in civilian airspace, the military helicopter would have needed to be fitted with a transponder alerting surrounding aircraft to its means both aircraft should have been able to see each other, he says, plus there would have been instructions from air traffic control and an aircraft protection safety device that operate separately from each other."On this occasion, you have these two different systems and both should have been able to keep these aircraft separate."The Black Hawk helicopter was part of B Company, 12th Aviation Battalion. It left Fort Belvoir, a military base in Virginia, and was taking part in a training Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has said the helicopter's crew were "fairly experienced" and taking part in an annual night flight training to CNN, Cedric Leighton - a retired US Air Force colonel - said it was normal for that type of military aircraft to be training at night in the area, particularly to make sure pilots are proficient with using instruments needed to fly in the said one of the unit's duties is to transport high-ranking personnel around the capital - though none were on board at the time of the crash as it was a training unit's pilots are expected to be proficient at flying in DC's busy airspace and "train in order to avoid incidents like this", he said only experienced pilots would be able to train in such a busy section of airspace. "Whether it's training for new systems or equipment, we need to know what systems the pilot had turned on in the helicopter and whether they had all the safety systems on board, or whether they were trying a new procedure or new route." — BBC
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
‘Bottom line is aircraft are not supposed to collide.' Probe begins in American Airlines crash
Surveillance camera images of the collision of a military helicopter and an American Airlines jet as it descended to land at a Washington, D.C. airport late Wednesday will be helpful in determining the cause. As will the communication between the pilots and the air traffic controllers. Protocol calls for their tower to be locked down after a collision in order to preserve data and perhaps discussions that were not broadcast over the radio air. Just as critical to determine why the jet and Army Blackhawk helicopter came to occupy the same space will be information and recordings extracted from the cellphones of the 60 deceased passengers. Although the devices may have been damaged when they were thrust into the Potomac River, experts said it is likely that the cellphones will yield key answers on what was happening seconds before impact, as phones burned in post-impact fires have in other crashes. 'They will be taken,' Austin-based attorney Mike Slack, a licensed pilot who has represented plaintiffs in mid-air collision cases, said of passenger cellphones. Because the collision late Wednesday at Reagan Washington National Airport is classified by the NTSB as a major investigation, a member of the body's board will lead the probe. Groups of experts on weather, air traffic control, flight operations and other areas will each prepare technical reports ahead of a public hearing. The NTSB final report will likely take 18 months to release and will include a probable cause and safety recommendations directed, perhaps, to the FAA, American Airlines and the Army. Investigators will consider the flight paths and the altitudes, air speeds and angles of both aircraft. And they will likely review the role of negligence in keeping the jet and helicopter separate and the responsibility of the pilots and air traffic controllers to prevent catastrophe. 'The bottom line is aircraft are not supposed to collide,' aviation attorney Jim Brachle said. On final approach, the American jet was descending from 500 feet to zero feet as the helicopter was operating at an altitude restriction of 200 feet. 'That is not a lot of separation,' Brachle said. In part to be certain that evidence does not become stale, relatives of passengers will likely not wait for the release of the NTSB final report to consider filing lawsuits. Families could bring claims alleging negligence against Fort Worth-based American Airlines. 'They could also sue the U.S. government,' under the federal tort claims act, Slack said, if attorneys representing relatives of passengers conclude that the helicopter pilots failed to see and avoid the American jet. The collision occurred during a landing approach in Washington, causing both aircraft to crash into the frigid Potomac River and killing 67 people in the worst U.S. commercial aviation disaster in years. Flight 5342, operated by PSA Airlines from Wichita, Kansas, to Reagan Washington National Airport, collided with an Army Blackhawk helicopter at 8:48 p.m. ET. American Airlines said the CRJ-700 Bombardier was carrying 60 passengers and four Charlotte-based crew members; the helicopter was involved in a training flight with three soldiers aboard. The bodies of 28 people had been recovered by early Thursday, and efforts to find the remains of other passengers were underway. The NTSB assessment will examine the role of the extreme challenges of flying at Reagan Washington National Airport. 'The environment around Reagan is not the environment around Meacham,' Slack said of the Fort Worth airport. The airspace in Washington is complex, and the difference between a near-miss and tragedy is a matter of feet.
