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US air crash investigation officials are looking into discrepancies in altitude data between a regional jet and a military helicopter that collided over Washington DC last week.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recovered black boxes from both the American Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 passenger jet and the US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter involved in the incident, which killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.
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While the flight data recorder of the CRJ700, registered N709PS, showed it was at approximately 325 feet (99 metres), data from the air traffic control tower showed the Black Hawk, registered 00-26860, was at 200 feet (61 metres) when it collided with the jet over the Potomac River shortly before 9pm local time on 29 January.
The CRJ700 had been en route from Wichita, Kansas as flight AA5342, and was on final approach to the airport when it hit the Black Hawk in what has become the deadliest air crash in the US since November 2001.
“The CRJ at the time of impact, based on ADSB data and the data in the flight recorder, shows that that airplane was positioned at 325 feet plus or minus 25 feet on the radar scope in the [control tower] cab,” said NTSB member J. Todd Inman in a press conference over the weekend.
“Our preliminary review shows that the Black Hawk helicopter would have visualised at 200 feet. It’s not as defined. That is preliminary. We will get more significant information.
“So the question is, what would explain this discrepancy? That’s what our job is, to figure that out. That’s what we’re doing.”
While no cause has yet been determined, with investigations still underway, the control tower at Washington’s Ronald Reagan International Airport appears to have been understaffed at the time of the crash.
According to reports, two air traffic controllers on duty at the time were responsible for work that would normally have been undertaken by four.
Inman said that NTSB officials had met with family members of the crash victims, and urged regulators to act on the board’s safety recommendations.
“We’re dealing with tragedy, but we need to improve safety. We need two hundred-plus recommendations fixed. We need people to take action,” he said.
“We have several hundred recommendations open for aviation. You want to do something about it? Adopt the recommendations of the NTSB, you’ll save lives.
“Get up and do something. I don’t want to have to meet with those parents like that again, it wasn’t fair. Could be your family.”
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