Two aircraft interrupted landing on DCA due to a helicopter in the flight track in the week before a collision: Report

Military flights of helicopters forced at least two planes to interrupt landing on Reagan National Airport In the week before the deadly collision, assuming that 67 people were killed on Wednesday, the report said.

On Tuesday night, just the day before a collision between the American Airlines flight and the Black Hawk helicopter army, a different aircraft warned the air traffic control tower that he had to interrupt the landing to avoid a collision with a helicopter, reported the Washington Post.

Another plane that arrived at DCA from Charlotte pierced landing on January 23, again because of a helicopter.

“They had to round up back because there was a helicopter on the flight track,” said Richard Hart, a passenger on the flight of January 23, who spoke with the Washington post. “At the time I considered him unusual … now I’m disturbing tragic.”

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Two close calls arrived within a week of a terrifying collision on Wednesday, in which the entrance commercial flight from Wichit in Kansas collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River. A total of 64 people, including four crew members, were on board a passenger American airline flight 5342, and three soldiers were on Army Sikorsky Uh-60 Black Hawk This came from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Everyone is assumed to be dead.

The tragedy caused concern about frequent military training around the National Airport Reagan, including a helicopter tape that intersects with a flying aircraft in the southeastern driver of the runway 33, where US Esta Flight 5342 from Wichit tried to overthrow on Wednesday, Post posted on Wednesday . Post.

The Federal Air Force Administration has erected an air traffic controller dedicated to helicopters at the National Hazard Management Airport, according to a report, citing a source familiar with the tower operations.

However, the Inner Preliminary Report of FAA has shown that the number of staff members working in the air control of the DCA on Wednesday is “not normal during the day of the day and the amount of traffic,” said Associated Press.

“The location of the position was not normal during the day of the day and the amount of traffic,” the report said.

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Despite the report that said that the staff “is not normal”, the person aware of this question told Fox News Digital that the staff in the DCA control tower was at a normal level on Wednesday night.

The person explained that positions are regularly combined if the air controllers must step down from the console for a break or if they are involved in changing the change. Controllers will also need to step down when air traffic is slow, the person explained, speaking, provided anonymity to discuss internal procedures.

Supervisors have the ability to combine roles, which was the case on Wednesday night, although the person familiar with the issue could not say why. Asked about air traffic and previous reports that he was on Wednesday night, the source said he was moderate.

The Washington Post Story quoted the Government Report of the 2023 Congress in the Congress, which was found to have performed about 88,000 helicopter flights within 30 miles from DCA between 2017 and 2019, stating data from FAA.

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Regulators have tried to define safe trails that military helicopters fly without disturbing commercial flights to landing or descending to the airport. The Gao report on 2021 states: “In the airspace near National and Rijeka Potomac, FAA further limits maximum helicopters where helicopter routes overlap with commercial passenger aircraft to ensure the safety of all aircraft.”

On Wednesday night, air traffic controllers contacted the Black Hawk pilot and asked if they could approach the commercial aircraft as flight 5342 prepared for landing on runway 33.

“Do you have a crj in sight?” The controller asked, and the helicopter pilot confirmed that he had seen a passenger plane. The pilot requested a “visual separation”, which means he was trying to get out of the flight track, according to Flighthradar24 audio.

The plane and helicopter collided a few moments later in a fiery explosion.

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Jim Brauchle, a former US Air Force navigator now a lawyer who represents victims’ family in airline catastrophe, earlier told Fox News Digital to be difficult in search of obstacles.

“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.

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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The cause of the collision is currently investigating FAA and several other federal agencies.

The close call on Tuesday, the evening before the deadly collision, was included by the Republic Airways Flight 4514 from Connecticut, Washington Post reported. The pilot told the air traffic controllers that it had to be diverted due to an emergency warning about helicopter traffic under the aircraft.

Flight tickets showed that the plane was heading south along the Potomac River Corridor towards the National Airport Reagan, but sharp turned to the west. Later, he certainly landed at 20:16, the report said.

Fox News Digital, Audrey Conklin, Greg Wehner and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.