The pilots of a US Army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet over Washington in January would\u2019ve had difficulty spotting the plane while wearing night vision goggles, experts told the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Army goggles would have made it difficult to see the plane\u2019s colored lights, which might have helped the Black Hawk determine the plane\u2019s direction. The goggles also limited the pilots\u2019 peripheral vision as they flew near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.<\/p>\n
The challenges posed by night-vision goggles were among the topics discussed at the NTSB\u2019s third and final day of public testimony over the fatal midair crash, which killed all 67 people aboard both aircrafts.<\/p>\n
Experts said another challenge that evening was distinguishing the plane from lights on the ground while the two aircraft were on a collision course. Plus, the helicopter pilots may not have known where to look for a plane that was landing on a secondary runway that most planes didn\u2019t use.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing where to look. That\u2019s key,\u201d said Stephen Casner, an expert in human factors who used to work at NASA.<\/p>\n
Two previous days of testimony underscored a number of factors that likely contributed to the collision, sparking Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy to urge the Federal Aviation Administration to \u201cdo better\u201d as she pointed to warnings the agency had ignored years earlier.<\/p>\n
Some of the major issues that have emerged so far include the Black Hawk helicopter flying above prescribed levels near the airport as well as the warnings to FAA officials for years about the hazards related to the heavy chopper traffic there.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too early for the board to identify what exactly caused the crash. A final report from the board won\u2019t come until next year.<\/p>\n
But it became clear this week how small a margin of error there was for helicopters flying the route the Black Hawk took the night of the nation\u2019s deadliest plane crash since November 2001.<\/p>\n
Army Col. Andrew DeForest told the NTSB that \u201cflights along the D.C. helicopter routes were considered relatively safe,\u201d but some pilots in the 12th Battalion that flew alongside the crew that crashed told investigators they regularly talked about the possibility of a collision because of the congested and complicated airspace.<\/p>\n
The American Airlines jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, carrying, among others, a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches, and four union steamfitters from the Washington area.<\/p>\n
The collision was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation.<\/p>\n
\u2018Significant frustration\u2019<\/p>\n
NTSB members scolded FAA officials during Friday\u2019s hearing, accusing them of saying the right things about safety in public while failing to cooperate in private. They said the FAA has repeatedly refused to provide information requested by investigators.<\/p>\n
Board member Todd Inman said there was \u201csignificant frustration between what\u2019s actually occurring\u201d and \u201cwhat\u2019s being said for public consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank McIntosh, the head of the FAA\u2019s air traffic control organization, said he would start working immediately to make sure the agency complies with the investigation. McIntosh also acknowledged problems with the culture in the tower at Reagan National, despite past efforts to improve compliance with safety standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there were some things that we missed, to be quite honest with you, not intentionally, but I was talking about how certain facilities can drift,\u201d McIntosh said.<\/p>\n
Homendy told McIntosh she believes agency leaders are sincere about wanting to improve safety, but the solution must be more than just sending a top-down message of safety and also actually listening to controllers in the field.<\/p>\n
Questions over lack of alcohol testing<\/p>\n
Tim Lilley, an aviation expert whose son Sam was a pilot on the passenger jet, said he\u2019s optimistic the tragic accident will ultimately lead to some positive changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019ve got a long way to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lilley said he was particularly struck by the FAA\u2019s lack of alcohol testing for air traffic controllers after the crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they made a bunch of excuses why they didn\u2019t do it,\u201d Lilley said. \u201cNone of them were valid. It goes back to a whole system that was complacent and was normalizing deviation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homendy said during Thursday\u2019s hearings that alcohol testing is most effective within two hours of a crash and can be administered within eight hours.<\/p>\n
Nick Fuller, the FAA\u2019s acting deputy chief operating officer of operations, testified that the controllers weren\u2019t tested because the agency did not immediately believe the crash was fatal. The FAA then decided to forgo it because the optimum two-hour window had passed.<\/p>\n
Controller didn\u2019t warn the jet<\/p>\n
FAA officials testified this week that an air traffic controller should have warned the passenger jet of the Army helicopter\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n
The controller had asked the Black Hawk pilots to confirm they had the airplane in sight because an alarm sounded in the tower about their proximity. The controller could see from a window that the helicopter was too close, but the controller did not alert the jetliner.<\/p>\n
In a transcript released this week, the unidentified controller said in a post-crash interview they weren\u2019t sure that would have changed the outcome.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the pilots of the helicopter did not fully hear the controller\u2019s instructions before the collision. When the controller told the helicopter\u2019s pilots to \u201cpass behind\u201d the jet, the crew didn\u2019t hear it because the Black Hawk\u2019s microphone key was pressed at that moment.<\/p>\n
\u2018Layer after layer of deficiencies\u2019<\/p>\n
Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and FAA crash investigator, told the AP that a combination of factors produced this tragedy, like \u201choles that line up in the Swiss cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any number of things, had they been different, could have prevented the collision, he said. They include the Black Hawks having more accurate altimeters, as well as a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned on or working. In turn, air traffic control could have seen the problem earlier.<\/p>\n
Just a few feet could have made a difference, Guzzetti said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just goes to show you that an accident isn\u2019t caused by one single thing,\u201d Guzzetti said. \u201cIt isn\u2019t caused by \u2018pilot error\u2019 or \u2018controller staffing.\u2019 This accident was caused by layer after layer of deficiencies that piled up at just the right moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ex-official: FAA and Army share blame<\/p>\n
Mary Schiavo, a former US Department of Transportation Inspector General, told the AP that both the Army and the FAA appear to share significant blame.<\/p>\n
The Black Hawks\u2019 altimeters could be off by as much as 100 feet and were still considered acceptable, she said. The crew was flying an outdated model that struggled to maintain altitude, while the helicopter pilots\u2019 flying was \u201cloose\u201d and under \u201cloose\u201d supervision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s on the individuals, God rest their souls, but it\u2019s also on the military,\u201d Schiavo said. \u201cI mean, they just seem to have no urgency of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schiavo was also struck by the air traffic controllers\u2019 lack of maps of the military helicopter routes on their display screens, which forced them to look out the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so everything about the military helicopter operation was not up to the standards of commercial aviation … it\u2019s a shocking lack of attention to precision all the way around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Schiavo also faulted the FAA for not coming off as terribly responsive to problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called the Federal Aviation Administration, the Tombstone Agency, because they would only make change after people die,\u201d Schiavo said. \u201cAnd sadly, 30 years later, that seems to still be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The pilots of a US Army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet over Washington in January would\u2019ve had difficulty spotting the plane while wearing night vision goggles, experts told the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday. The Army goggles would have made it difficult to see the plane\u2019s colored lights, which might have helped …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":84728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84729,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84727\/revisions\/84729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}