Military helicopter flights forced at least two planes to thwart the landing in Rigan National Airport In a week before a deadly collision, 67 people are supposed to be on Wednesday, according to a report.
On Tuesday night, just one day before the collision between the US Airways flight and the Black Hawk helicopter in the army, a different aircraft alert alerted the air traffic control tower that had to thwart its landing to avoid collision with a helicopter, Washington Post mentioned.
Another plane arrived in DCA from Charlotte, cleaned its landing on January 23, again due to a helicopter.
“They were forced to go back because of the presence of a helicopter in the flight course,” said Richard Hart, a passenger on a January 23 trip that spoke to the Washington Post. “At that time I found it strange … Now I find it disturbingly tragic.”
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The crew recruits the 5342 US Airways flight on the Botomac River, DC, on January 30, 2025. The plane participated in a deadly collision with a Black Hawk helicopter in the US Army the night before. (Lee Green in favor of Fox News Digital)
The two close calls came within a week of collision on the terrible Wednesday, with a commercial trip from Whitchita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter over the Botomac River. A total of 64 people, including four crew members, were on the American Airlines Flight 5342, and three soldiers were on Sikorsky Army UH-60 Black Hawk This came from Fort Balfwar in Virginia. All of them assume dead.
The tragedy raised concerns about repeated military training flights about Reagan National Airport, including helicopter lane that intersects with the path of aircraft aircraft on the southeastern approach to the 33rd runway, where the American Eagle Flight 5342 tried from Wichita to Earth on Wednesday, according to the Post,.
The report said that the Federal Aviation Administration placed an observer of the Air Movement dedicated to helicopters at the National Airport Tower for Risk Management.
However, an internal initial report from FAA showed that the number of employees working in the DCA air control tower “is not normal for the time of today and the volume of traffic” on Wednesday, according to Associated Press.
“The formation of the situation was not normal for today and the volume of traffic,” the report said.
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The drawing shows a schedule for the crash of the plane near the Rigan National Airport near Washington, DC (Fox News)
Despite the report that the employment says “not normal”, he told a person familiarize news Digital that the employment in the DCA control tower on Wednesday evening was at an ordinary level.
The person explained that the positions are combined if the control units are forced to move away from the separation console, or if they are involved in changing the transformation. Control units may also have to move away when the air traffic is slow, as the person explained, and it spoke on the condition that his identity is not disclosed to discuss internal procedures.
Supervisors have the ability to combine roles, and this is the case on Wednesday night, although the person familiar with it cannot say the reason. When asked about air traffic and previous reports that it was heavy on Wednesday night, the source said it was moderate.
The Washington Post story was martyred in the 2023 government accounting office report to Congress, which found 50 entities running about 88,000 helicopters 30 miles from DCA between 2017 and 2019, citing FAA data.
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Part of the debris is seen as searching for rescue boats in the waters of the Botomac River after a plane crashed at the Rigan National Airport in the river near Washington, DC, on January 30, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Rynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Organizers have tried to determine safe paths for military aircraft to fly without interfering in trade flights to land or take off at the airport. “In the airspace near the National Reagan and the Botomac River, FAA limits the maximum helicopter helicopters where the roads of helicopters interfere with the commercial passenger plane operations to ensure the safety of all aircraft,” noted the GAW 2021 report.
On Wednesday night, Black Hawk air traffic monitors called on if he could see the approaching commercial aircraft with a 5342 flight to land on the 33rd runway.
“Do you have CRJ on the horizon?” The observer asked, and the helicopter pilot confirmed that he saw the passenger plane. The pilot request “the visual separation”, which means that he was trying to get out of the journey course, according to Flightradar24 voice.
The plane and the helicopter collided later in a gunfire.
General view of the Rigan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday, January 30, 2025. The US Airways flight from Whitchta collided with a Black Hawk helicopter while approaching the airport to land in the previous evening. (Lee Green in favor of Fox News Digital)
Jim Broshly, a former US Air Force Explorer, who is now a lawyer representing the families of the victims in flight disasters, previously told Fox News Digitter that keeping monitoring of obstacles may be difficult.
“After she flew at night, after I tried to look and see traffic, I think most people will say,” Oh, how difficult it is to miss a plane? ” People expect. “
At night in an urban environment such as Washington, DC, Or in North Virginia, pilots may not be able to see other aircraft, and instead they may depend on seeing anti -achievement or landing lamps, according to BRUCHLE. However, the different surrounding lights of the Long -lit long buildings and towers may make it difficult to distinguish between the lights belonging to other aircraft.
“What I heard from the sound is that they called for (air traffic control). The helicopter said he had a plane on the horizon,” the lawyer said. “I think, and again, I just speculate, did they see something they thought it was the plane, whether it was the light of a tower, perhaps another plane was taking off. All they thought they saw it was not clear that it was not” the plane. “
The reason for the collision is currently under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and many other federal agencies.
The Washington Post reported that the close invitation on Tuesday, in the evening preceding the deadly collision, included the flight of the Republic 4514 from Connecticut. The pilot told air traffic monitors that he should be transferred due to an emergency alert about a helicopter below the plane.
Air tracking maps showed that the plane was heading south along the Potomak River corridor towards the National Airport, but it took a sharp turn to the west. The report said that he later landed safely at 8:16 pm.
In this report, this report contributed to this report, Audreycalnin from Fox News Digitter, Audrey Consclin, Greg Winner and Stephen Soras contributed to this report.
