Initial Federal Aviation Administration report says roles of coordinating helicopter traffic and planes were combined. An initial Federal Aviation Administration report obtained by US media organisations said staffing levels were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic” before a military helicopter collided with a passenger jet in the heart of Washington DC. According to the report, the separate roles of coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes had been combined when the collision happened, the Associated Press reported. The Washington Post said two people were handling the jobs of four inside the control tower.
The cause of the crash remains unclear. Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from American Eagle flight 5342, an American Airlines flight operated by PSA, the National Transportation Safety Board said late on Thursday. The recorders are now at the NTSB’s labs for evaluation. Todd Inman, a board member, said officials aimed to release a preliminary report on the incident within 30 days.
A person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that the positions handling helicopters and planes are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, are in the process of a shift change or air traffic is slow. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures, the person said the staffing situation on Wednesday night was at a normal level.
But the initial FAA report, obtained by the New York Times, the Associated Press and others, concludes differently, saying that the staffing was “not normal” either for the time of day or the amount of air traffic over the city, which has more than 100 helicopters a day on average. The helicopter and the passenger plane had been flying in a “standard flight pattern” on a clear night before the crash, the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said. He added that it was not uncommon for military aircraft to be seen in the skies over the US capital, including near Reagan National airport, which is in Arlington, Virginia.
The chief executive of American Airlines, Robert Eisen, said: “At this time we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft.” He urged friends and family of those affected to call 1-800-679-8215, which is the helpline the airline has set up. A day before Wednesday night’s collision near Reagan National airport, a different jet there had to abort its landing and make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.
The US army had an increase in very serious aviation incidents during the last fiscal year, with 15 flight and two ground incidents that resulted in deaths of service members, destruction of aircraft, or more than $2.5m in damage to the airframe, the Associated Press reported. So far, at least 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane and one from the Black Hawk helicopter which crashed into the Potomac River. The Bombardier CRJ-700 jet broke into three parts and was in waist-deep water in the Potomac. More than 300 emergency workers, including divers, weathered high winds and packed ice to retrieve pieces of the plane and bodies.
As many as 14 skaters and coaches, including two 16-year-olds and a married pair of world champions, were onboard the American Airlines plane. The Skating Club of Boston said Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, both 16, were on the flight. The club also said the Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were husband and wife, were onboard. Other victims included the ice-skating coach Alexandr Kirsanov, and two of his young students Angela Yang and Sean Kay.
