Airplane experts ask how a collision happened in the “most controlled airspace”

The world of aviation struggles to understand how a deadly collision in the middle of the air between a passenger plane and a military helicopter managed to happen in what an expert described as “the most controlled small airspace in the world.”

A US Army’s Black Hawk helicopter with a three -person crew collided with an American Airlines airplane, carrying 64 seconds before the passenger plane has to land at the Washington National Airport.

Both planes were sent to board the Ice River Potomak on Wednesday night.

The exact cause of the crash remains unknown.

Officials will release a preliminary report within 30 days, according to the National Transport Safety Council (NTSB) – which is a leading investigation.

Todd Inman, part of NTSB’s five -member council, said on Thursday that the agency has not yet recovered records of flight data – known as the black boxes – but they are “confident” that they will be able to remove them from the water.

The airspace over Colombia County is very limited to protecting both national security and buildings that have major aspects of the US government.

Trade planes are prevented from flying over the Pentagon, the White House and other historical landmarks.

Still, the area sees a lot of air traffic, aviation lawyer Jim Brahle, who deals with numerous court disputes related to Jets and Reagan Airport, told the BBC.

There is commercial traffic, but also private aviation and helicopters flying around the city often carry high -ranking employees and politicians between sensitive places.

“You have these really narrow paths outside and out and you have a lot of congestion and extra planes, so you put a lot of planes in a really closed space,” he said.

Jeff Gutseti, a former investigator of the Federal Aviation Air Aircraft Air Force (FAA) and NTSB, told the BBC Newshour that a helicopter seems to be in communication with the control tower before the incident. The air traffic controller pointed to the American Airlines flight to the helicopter, he said.

“The helicopter pilot said he had the aircraft and would visually separate from it – and then the incident happened shortly after – so there would be many questions about exactly what the helicopter pilot saw?” said G -n Guzzetti.

NTSB Inman said DC is also a “unique environment” because of helicopters and specific areas that are allowed to fly.

“If you look at DC, you see many helicopters descend into this area, so there is a very well defined system in this regard,” he said.

Inman could not provide any specifics of helicopter height before colliding with American Airlines flights.

G -n Brachle, which deals with numerous lawsuits related to Jets and Reagan Airport, told the BBC that the question remains that two aircraft find themselves in the same airspace.

“What is truly unique to Reagan is right there, on the river. There is also a helicopter route that passes right over the last approach and it’s on or under 200 feet,” he said.

Brachle said routes for both helicopters and Aircraft approach intersect.

“You put potentially two different planes in a really small space with almost no separation,” he said. “If you get one that may be a little too low, it’s a little too high, you’re in the same place.”

Aviation consultant Philip Butterworth-Hayes said the incident took place in the “connection of various aviation systems”, including civil and military systems, as well as procedures that specific to the airport.

“You are here at the border of three or four aviation systems – and it is at those boundaries that most accidents are inclined,” he added.

But the UK -based aviation expert John Strickland said the amount of commercial air traffic in the area cannot fully explain why the deadly clash is able to happen.

As well as a national close to the center of Washington, he notes that there is the International Portal, Washington Dulles, as well as Baltimore Airport a little longer.

“There must be a traffic management management to preserve the separation. This is as we have in London, where you have to control traffic flows between Heathrow, Stanstead, Gatwick and London City.

“So DC is not different in this sense for London or New York … It’s not completely unusual.”

G -B BUTTERWORTH -hayes continued: “This is the most controlled airspace in the world. You have both US government and civilian systems – Ronald Reagan’s airport is even owned by the government, this is one of the least few.

“This is really the most secure -and it should be the most secure airspace in the world, given the number of security and civil safety organizations operating in this area.”

The last fatal disaster associated with a commercial aircraft in the United States was in February 2009. Employees and experts also emphasize that this type of incident is incredibly rare due to strict safety restrictions on all types of flights.

Staff received from a source of air traffic control by CBS News, the US partner of the BBC, showed the two aircraft that seemed to be involved in the crash, clearly visible in radar systems available to controllers.

The audio received from the BBC News seems to confirm that the helicopter is in contact with the air traffic air traffic control at the airport.

The helicopter was asked if the passenger plane was “in sight” and “go behind”. In the audio that follows, it seems that the controllers are aware that there was a collision and can be heard by pointing other planes in the air at neighboring airports.

Mr. Butterworth-Hayes said the clash in the air like this requires a number of things to go wrong.

He said that in order to fly in civilian airspace, the military helicopter would have to be equipped with a transponder that warned the surrounding aircraft in his position.

This means that both aircraft must be able to see, he says, plus this would have instructions from air traffic control and aircraft safety device that operate separately from each other.

“On this occasion, you have these two different systems, and both had to be able to hold these planes separately.”

The Black Hawk helicopter was part of B Company, 12th aviation battalion. He left Fort Belvoire, a military base in Virginia and participated in a training exercise.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Heget said the helicopter crew was “quite experienced” and participated in an annual night flight training.

Speaking to CNN, Cedric Leighton, a retired US Air Force colonel, said it was normal for this type of military aircraft to train at night in the area, especially to ensure that pilots were experienced with the use of tools needed to fly dark S

He said one of the unit’s duties was to transport high -ranking staff around the capital – although no one was on board during the crash because it was a training flight.

The unit pilots are expected to deal with flying in the busy DC airspace and “train to avoid incidents like this,” he added.

Mr. Butterworth-Hayes said only experienced pilots would be able to train in such a busy stretch of airspace.

“Whether it is training for new systems or equipment, we need to know what systems the pilot has included in the helicopter and whether they have all the safety systems on board or whether they have tried a new procedure or a new route.”