Cacophony of errors behind DC jet crash emerge – wrong flight path, ‘juggling two jobs’ & notorious ‘helicopter alley’ A CATALOGUE of errors including staffing issues and use of the wrong flight path could be to blame for the American Airlines plane crash.
Republic Airways Flight 4514 was forced to back out of touching down and had to make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, one controller asked the helicopter if it could see the plane.
Sources told the NYT the helicopter appeared to have been flying too high, and the plane pilots may not have seen the chopper as they made a turn towards the runway.
She said it is possible that the helicopter pilot thought the Airbus, which was 9.2km away, was the much smaller American Eagle plane just 4.5km away.
