Broken altimeter, ignored warnings: Hearings reveal what went wrong in DC crash that killed 67

This week, sometimes controversial hearings, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army officials, Washington, Washington, a list of things that contribute to a passenger jet colliding in the DC questioned. Kill 67 people.

The biggest revelation: The altimeter indicator of the helicopter was broken, and the controllers warned FAA about the dangers of helicopters years ago.

At one point, NTSB President Jennifer Homendy scolded FAA for not dealing with security concerns.

“Are you kidding me? Sixty -seven people died! How do you explain this? Our bureaucratic process?” he said. “Corrects. Do better.”

Victims of the January accident including A group of distinguished young intermittent skatersParents and coaches from the Washington region and four units Steamfitters.

Take a look at the great interests of the trials about the collision, which worries travelers in front of a series. Other accidents And Close calls Added to his concerns about flying this year:

Helicopter Flying at 278 feet (85 meters)-When the 200-meter (61-meter) ceiling on this route collides well above the ceiling. However, inspectors may have not noticed that the pilots have read the barometric altimeter, 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) from the height recorded by the flight data recorder.

NTSB later found similar inconsistencies in the altimeters of the other three other helicopters from the same unit.

Sikorsky, who made the Black Hawks, said that the collapsed is an old model that lacks air data computers that make more accurate height readings in newer versions.

Kylene Lewis, the supervisor of the army, said that an inconsistency of 80 to 100 meters (24-30 meters) between the different altimeters on a helicopter would not be worried, because at lower altitudes would rely more than the barometric altimeter. In addition, army pilots are trying to remain in a target height of 100 feet (30 meters) on flights, so that they can even do so with such distant subtitles.

However, Medevac operator from Metro aviation Rick Dressler told NTSB that inconsistency will not fly with helicopters. Dressler said that when Black Hawk was flying that night, a helicopter route contains an altitude limit, he thought his pilots were a harsh ceiling.

Both tried to mislead the responsibility of the accident, but the testimony stressed many things that could be done differently. NTSB’s final report will be held next year, but there will be no only reason for an accident.

“It was a one -week calculation week for the FAA and the US army in this accident, Jeff said Jeff Guzzetti, former Aviation Security Advisor and former Accident Researcher.

Army officials, more concern, FAA’s Ronald Reagan International Airport approved routes, planes on a certain runway in Reagan, while helicopters and aircraft between 75 feet (23 meters), he said.

“Our distinction is a concern for me,” said Scott Rosengren, Chief Engineer in the office, which manages the army’s public helicopters.

David Van Vechten, the Officer of the Army Chief Varrant, said that the air traffic controller allowed the helicopter to continue, the aircraft was wandering to descend to Reagan’s secondary track, when the traffic rises for the main runway and when it constitutes about 5% of the flights.

Van Vechten said he was never allowed to fly under a landing plane like Black Hawk did, but he flew hundreds of times that the route, including landing planes on that runway. Other pilots in the unit told Crash researchers that it was routine to fly under landing planes, and they believed it was safe if they adhered to the approved route.

Frank McIntosh, President of the Air Traffic Control Organization of FAA, said that the controllers in Reagan are “really dependent on the use of visual separation ,, he said. NTSB said that the controllers will “work” many times. Sometimes they used “squeezing games” to the airplanes with a minimum separation.

On the night of the accident, a controller asked the helicopter pilots twice if the jet appeared, and the pilots said that they wanted and wanted visual separation approval to use their own eyes to protect the distance. At the hearing, the testimony revealed serious questions about how well the crew could see the plane while wearing night vision glasses and whether the pilots looked at the right point.

In an interview, the helicopter admitted that the pilots of the aircraft were never stimulated when a collision was on the way to a collision, but the auditors did not think the aircraft would make a difference at this point. The plane was landed and tried to pull it up in the last second after receiving a warning in the cockpit, but it was too late.

In 2022, a FAA study group tried to add a warning to the helicopter graphics, called on the pilots to be careful when they were used, but the agency rejected. “Helicopter operations occur at an intimacy that triggers safety events. These events are increasing in the wrong direction and every year,” he said.

Separately, a different group of helicopters at the airport moved the path, but these discussions did not go anywhere. And a manager at a regional radar facility in the region called on the FAA in writing to reduce the number of planes going to Reagan due to security concerns and landing.

NTSB also said FAA did not recognize a disturbing history. 85 near Misses Around Reagan within three years before the collision,

NTSB President Jennifer Homendy said, “Every sign has a risk of security, and the tower was telling you it,” he said. However, after the accident, FAA took out the airport instead of admitting that they were warned.

Hivendy said, şey What you do is conveyed people instead of having the fact that everyone in the Tower says it is a problem, ”Hivendy said. “But you, ‘Welp, our bureaucratic process. Someone should have brought him to another symposium.’

Associated Press writer Leah Askarinam contributed.