NTSB finds Army chopper in fatal midair crash with plane was above altitude limit

Investigators probing the January midair collision of a visitor plane and an Army helicopter over Washington that killed people determined the chopper was flying higher than the it should have been and the altitude readings were inaccurate The details came out of the first day of National Transportation Safety Board hearings in Washington where investigators aim to uncover insights into what caused the crash between the American Airlines plane from Wichita Kansas and the Black Hawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan National Airport The board opened the three days of hearings by showing an animation and playing audio and video from the night of the collision as well as questioning onlookers and investigators about how the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army may have contributed to nation s deadliest plane crash since November It s likely too early for the board to identify what caused the crash The January event was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed bureaucrats and the traveling constituents despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation Animation altimeter discrepancy The hearing opened Wednesday with a video animation showing where the helicopter and airliner were leading up to the collision It evidenced how the helicopter flew above the feet meters altitude limit on the helicopter track along the Potomac River before colliding with the plane Investigators disclosed Wednesday the flight input recorder evidenced the helicopter was authentically feet to feet to meters higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon manifested they were flying So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and located similar discrepancies in their altimeters Dan Cooper with Sikorsky helicopters commented that when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the s it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time Newer helicopters have air content computers that didn t exist back then that help provide more accurate altitude readings Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis described the board that she wouldn t find an to foot discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter Below feet meters Lewis stated she would be checking both instruments and cross referencing them She declared as long as an altimeter registers an altitude within feet of the published altitude before takeoff the altimeter is considered accurate under the checklists But previously NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy highlighted that the published helicopter routes around Washington D C would allow planes and helicopters to routinely come within feet of each other during landing Army authorities disclosed Wednesday that the flight manual for these older Black Hawks doesn t highlight the discrepancies in altimeters that has been documented previously but typical flight separations are at least feet around airports Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of near misses around Reagan airport in the years before the collision and that the Army s helicopters routinely flew around the nation s capitol with a key piece of locating equipment known as ADS-B Out turned off Aviation attorney Bob Clifford who is working to file one of the first lawsuits against the regime next month explained he hopes NTSB will look beyond the immediate factors that caused this crash to highlight the bigger ongoing concerns in the crowded Washington airspace Proposed changes Even though the final NTSB summary won t be issued until sometime next year U S Sen Ted Cruz isn t waiting to propose changes He introduced ordinance Tuesday that would require all aircraft operators to use both forms of ADS-B or Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast the hardware to broadcast aircraft location input to other planes and air traffic controllers Largest part aircraft in the present day are equipped with ADS-B Out equipment but the airlines would have to add the more comprehensive ADS-B In machinery to their planes There cannot be a double standard in aviation safety Cruz stated We should not tolerate special exceptions for military training flights operating in congested air space The bill would revoke an exemption on ADS-B transmission requests for Department of Defense aircrafts It also would require the FAA to evaluate helicopter routes near airports and require the Army Inspector General to review the Army s aviation safety practices Homendy noted her agency has been recommending that move for decades after several other crashes Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared that while he d like to discuss a inadequate tweaks the measure is the right approach He also suggested that the previous administration was asleep at the wheel amid dozens of near-misses in the airspace around Washington s airspace Fact-finding proceeding Homendy announced the hearings over the next scarce days will be a fact-finding proceeding The NTSB will also post thousands of pages of evidence from the crash study online FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford explained that he expects we re going to have specific very uncomfortable conversations over the next two and a half days but that they need to be had in the clear light of day and just put the best interest of the traveling inhabitants ahead of any of our personal interests perhaps The hearings in Washington involve NTSB board members investigators and spectators for organizations involved in the crash Panels will focus on military helicopter routes in the Washington area collision avoidance hardware and training for air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan National Airport among other subjects Federal representatives have also raised concerns over the nation s outdated and understaffed air traffic control system During January s mid-air crash above Washington one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the busy airport Duffy has informed a multi-billion-dollar plan to overhaul the system controllers use that relies on old system like floppy disks