Captain Sully, 74, was deemed a hero when he successfully landed a doomed Bombardier CRJ700 flight into New York’s Hudson River on 15 January 2009, after the plane struck a flock of Canada geese at an altitude of 2,818 feet, causing both engines to ignite into flames and shut down – all 155 people on board the plane survived.
In Thursday’s press conference, and when questioned by a reporter on whether the plane was aware of the helicopter in the air, Secretary Duffy took a long pause and said: “I would say, the helicopter was aware there was a plane in the area.”.
On Wednesday night, an American Airlines regional jet was on the final approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., when it collided midair with a military Black Hawk helicopter shortly before 9pm ET, before plunging into the Potomac River claiming the lives of 67 people.
The helicopter crew whose BlackHawk struck the passenger jet were “fairly experienced,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Thursday and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the incident had been “preventable”, as it had been a perfectly clear night.
The captain insisted however that a descent over water and at night are two factors that most certainly would have made avoiding the helicopter more difficult as there are “fewer ground lights visible over the water than over land at night”, he added.
