Black Hawk Battled Bad Altitude Data Before Washington Crash

(Bloomberg) – A American Airlines Group Inc. and a US army near Washington, the security researchers investigating the collision of January between Black Hawk, exhibited an important instrument in the helicopter to push the wrong altitude data that could push the pilots were actually flying lower than they were actually than they were.

On Wednesday, the US National Transportation Security Council launched a three -day hearing to shed findings in an accident investigation that killed 67 people.

According to the agency, the barometric altimeter, which measures the changes in Black Hawk’s air pressure, showed the altitude, showing the helicopter under 100 meters (30 meters) of the American Airlines jet during the accident.

However, it is uncertain that the helicopter crew’s discharged data against other devices such as radio subtitles, which determines the height by measuring the time required for the radio waves to go to the ground and return to the plane.

NTSB President Jennifer Hivendy told reporters during a break at the hearing.

In addition, some of them are very fast to point out the pilot error in this case and still something that the agency is looking at, “it is possible to have a zero pilot error here.”

NTSB, the agency’s final report before putting out of the altimeter problem will not publish any emergency security proposal, and the army’s response to how to address the problem, he added.

The documents published by NTSB’s research show a typical hectic night in the airspace in the Washington region and communicate with a continuous commercial jet stream with controllers, military helicopters and air ambulance.

According to the helicopter’s cockpit audio recording, the prisoner Black Hawk’s instructor said, “Tonight stacked tonight,” he said.

US army representative Kylene Lewis said that altimeter pilots should use or whether they need to compare the data between the devices. It is also thought to be suitable for use, as long as army pilots should control barometric subtitles before flights, and as long as they are in an 70 -meter error margin.

NTSB had previously said that the helicopter was looking at whether he had received incorrect altitude readings, but for the first time, the agency confirmed the findings on this front.

As part of their probes, the inspectors tested the three other Black Hawks, the same model-Sikorsky UH-60L-and accident helicopter. While the plane flew over the tide part of the Potomac River where the accident occurred, they showed that the barometric altimeters were 80 to 130 feet lower than the real altitudes above sea level.

Ronald Reagan Washington, the worst civil aviation disaster in the United States for decades for decades, has created concerns about aviation security and led to a pressure on helicopter flights near the airport. In addition, the country’s aging Air Traffic Control System helped to revive support for large upgrades.

The public sessions are entering the equipment on the Black Hawk helicopter, crowded airspace and air traffic control training and procedures on the belly. There are often many factors that cause a tragedy, such as the collision of January in the air.

Ordu Black Hawk, a three -person crew in an education task, was flying over a 200 -meter border applied to helicopters in the region. Inspectors also found that pilots missed an important instruction for their “leaving behind” the American CRJ-700 regional jet, one of the air traffic controllers. In addition, army pilots were probably wearing night vision glasses that could disrupt their environmental view.

The helicopter did not publish his position using a technology known as ADS-B, which would help air traffic controllers and other aircraft to give more precise information about its location.

NTSB said that it was unclear whether the Black Hawk crew’s crew has closed down and closed Ads-B or whether there was another problem with their equipment.

Hivendy said the helicopter did not transfer location data within two years before the accident. Eight other Black Hawk helicopters from the same Army fleet, at a point between May and November 2023, stopped transmitting data even when the ADS-B was opened, in March he said to the MPs in March.

The accident also drew attention to the major airspace near Reagan National Airport, a favorite of tourists, deputies and power brokers thanks to its proximity to the US capital.

It has the most active track of the country by feeding commercial planes to other civil and military aircraft, including helicopters.

Just a few months after the Matair collision, a nearby US army traveling to the Pentagon had to cancel the descents in May in May due to the Black Hawk helicopter of the Black Hawk helicopter.

Since October 2021, NTSB has set more than 15,000 examples in which commercial aircraft and helicopters have entered an insecure distance. This contains 85 times when the aircraft is less than 1,500 feet and less than 200 feet.

The captain of the aircraft just before the accident, then the accident inspectors, the controllers, the first tense to manage the landing, after the first officer in the airport, the airport’s less used diagonal track refused to descend. However, the prisoner behind him heard that the American jet accepted the instruction.

“The controller seemed extremely busy, caught my attention, seeing a little task saturated, but it is not unusual for them to be really busy,” he said. “He caught my attention because he looked a little … He’s overloaded, let’s put it like this.”

-With the help of Julie Johnson and Mary Schlangenstein.

(Updates from the fourth paragraph with additional details from the hearing.)

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