DC plane crash probably ‘combination’ factor, ‘happiness’ no more air accidents: a lawyer
The fatal collision between the American Airlines and the US Army helicopter at the Reagan International Airport on Wednesday night is probably the highlight of the factors, said Jim Brauchle Air Force, who says we were “lucky” and that wasn’t that more air accidents.
Brauchle is a former US aircraft navigator that now represents the family of victims involved in airline disasters, including the Boeing 737 Max 8 collision from 2019, which killed 157 people in Ethiopia, shortly after the departure and collision of a 2014 black helicopter collision, in 2014, who killed a soldier and seriously killed a soldier and seriously injured two others on board during a flight at Hunter Army Airport in Georgia.
“I hate to say that, but a lot of people in the plane industry envisaged that there would be an accident,” Brauchle told Fox News Digital. “Nobody wants it, you know, he says that loudly, because it’s obviously scary. But in the last few years there have been a lot of misses. We were, too, we knew we were lucky there that we were lucky I was no more than these. “
AND The collision happened Around 9:00 pm when PSA Airlines Bombardier Crj700 collided in Midair with Sikorsky H-60 helicopter, while he was on the runway approach to the National Airport of Reagan, Federal Air Force (FAA) said. The regional jet started from Wichita to Kansas.
The efforts in search and rescue can be seen around the place of the wreck in Rijeka Potomac from the National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington, early Thursday morning, January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Va. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
American Airlines said the jet carried 60 passengers and four crew members, while the army announced that three soldiers were on board a military helicopter. Officials later said on Thursday morning that no one was expected that no one survived after a huge search and rescue operation in the cold waters of Rijeka Potomac in Arlington, Virginia.
Brauchle said there are several ways in which aircraft avoid collisions to a medium extent, especially on the hectic Reagan National Airport, Including transponders and systems for avoiding traffic collisions that most commercial aircraft are equipped with, communicating with air traffic control and what he called “vision and avoidance”, in which pilots follow other aircraft and obstacles.
Brauchle said she was watching obstacles more difficult than it looks.
“Flying at night, trying to look at and see traffic, I think most people would say, ‘Oh, how hard it is to miss the aviation,’ ‘right? You should be able to see it. But that’s much harder than people would expect, “he said.
29 January DC Map of the collision with plane-helicopter.
At night in an urban environment like Washington, DC, Or N But different ambient lights from high buildings and tower that are inflamed may make it difficult to distinguish the lights that belong to other aircraft.
“What I heard from the sound was that they called [air traffic control]. The helicopter said he had in sight, “the lawyer said.” I guess, and again, I just speculate, whether they saw something they thought was the plane, whether it was tower light, maybe it was another aircraft that took off. Whatever they thought they saw that he was obviously not an aircraft. “
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Brauchle said that usually, if two aircraft are found on the same track, the maneuvering aircraft should try to move out of the slower aircraft.
“In this case, it’s a kind of really unique situation,” he said. “It seems that both of these aircraft are where they were to be, or at least on the route. It may not be necessary for altitude.”
The efforts in search and rescue can be seen around the place of the wreck in Rijeka Potomac from the National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington, early Thursday morning, January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaste)
Citing the published routes for two aircraft, Brauchle said that even if both aircraft are right where it should be, there are only a few hundred meters of separation.
“If you have any kind, you know the height of the height or a pilot slightly from the height, you are very easy to put the plane in the same airspace,” the lawyer said.
The Reagan National Airport facilitates commercial, private and military traffic in relatively condensed airspace.
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“You combine all these different aircraft, all different types of aircraft, all in a very limited space,” he said, noting that the airspace is limited in the DC area for the care of national security. “And that is what is unique, I mean, it is about Reagan that he is so congested in such a closed space.”
The cause of the collision remains unknown in hours after the accident. Hundreds of first respondents conducted a huge surgery for search and rescue for survivors, although the surgery turned into recovery later on Thursday morning.
Rescue workers respond to the scene on the Potomac River near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday, January 30, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Brauchle said that, based on their experiences in the litigation and exploration of such accidents with Charleston, South Carolin, based in South Carolina, the families of those who died probably in shock because the accident accidents should not happen.
“What I also saw from the family is that they always ask for answers,” he said. “They want to know why this happened. Why did they lose their loved one?”
Brauchle said that the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSB) is likely to publish a preliminary report in 30 days and believes that the families will eventually seek litigation as a result of this accident.
The NTSB leads the investigation into MID collisions, and investigators from FAA help.
