U.S. business pilot Rick Redfern was making ready to land at Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport a couple of decade in the past when he noticed a vibrant purple Coast Guard helicopter hovering about 50 toes (15 m) above the Potomac River.
Air site visitors management promptly warned the helicopter pilot to remain clear, and Redfern mentioned he used evasive maneuvers to keep away from it and avert a possible catastrophe – and that was in daytime, when visibility was clearer.
At night time “the sunshine can disorient you as to what you would possibly assume you’re seeing as to what you truly are seeing,” Redfern mentioned.
A collision final Wednesday night time between a Black Hawk army helicopter and an American Airways subsidiary’s CRJ700 regional jet, which killed 67 people, has stirred haunting recollections for Redfern and different pilots who’ve confronted challenges landing at the Washington airport.
Planes approaching the airport should navigate a exact and slender flight path to keep away from restricted airspace across the close by White Home and Pentagon.
“That flip from the japanese facet alongside the river to show into runway 33 could be very, very tight,” mentioned Redfern, referring to the identical airstrip the American Airways jet was heading in the direction of earlier than colliding with the U.S. army helicopter.
It’s unclear what caused the crash, which is now beneath investigation by the U.S. Nationwide Transportation Security Board and the U.S. Military. Air crashes sometimes outcome from a number of components.
Seven U.S. pilots instructed Reuters the touchdown at Reagan airport is exclusive attributable to congested house, together with an incapability to speak instantly with army plane, which function on completely different radio frequencies. The airport additionally has shorter runways, together with runway 33, which is usually reserved for smaller plane, one of many seven aviators mentioned.
For pilots, it means traversing slender airspace, since planes can not cross the japanese shoreline of the Potomac River when approaching the airport that can be used often by the army for coaching, the aviators mentioned.
The U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopter concerned within the collision was on a training flight and flying at an altitude of about 300 toes on the time of the crash, in response to FlightRadar24 information.
To keep away from collisions with different plane, pilots depend on the Visitors Alert and Collision Avoidance System, higher often known as TCAS. When TCAS detects a dangerously shut plane, it offers directions to the pilots to keep away from a collision, resembling pull up or descend, flip left or flip proper.
Nonetheless, when an airplane is under about 1,100 toes, TCAS stops giving directions to pilots.
“There simply isn’t sufficient room under that to maneuver,” mentioned aviation security skilled and former airline pilot John Nance.
Close to Misses
A Reuters assessment of incidents at Reagan airport involving helicopters reveals pilots had been elevating alarm about near-misses again to the Nineteen Eighties.
“You undoubtedly are bringing your A-game whenever you fly out and in of Reagan,” mentioned former long-time business airline pilot Kathleen Bangs.
Out of 46 incidents flagged anonymously by pilots within the Aviation Security Reporting System database, 26 circumstances concerned near-misses or recklessly shut contact.
In a report about an incident in September 1989, one pilot complained that army helicopters and business plane are on completely different radio frequencies, can not hear one another and depend on “very busy” site visitors controllers to forestall accidents.
The pilot complained it was his seventh near-miss with a helicopter in 4-1/2 years flying into the airport.
“Is DCA (Reagan) a congested airspace? Sure, palms down little question about it,” mentioned Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Affiliation that represents American Airways AAL.O mainline pilots.
“It’s in a really tight airspace as a result of there are restricted areas throughout the airport.”
Whereas constrained airspace makes the method more difficult, aviation security consultants haven’t raised widespread issues concerning the house constraints.
“We now have business flights and army flights and all sorts of flights working out of Reagan Nationwide every single day,” mentioned aviation security and crash investigation skilled Anthony Brickhouse.
Preventable Tragedy?
Within the moments earlier than the crash, an air traffic controller can be heard on recordings asking the Military helicopter to move behind the regional jet.
“They’ll be finding out what the helicopter pilots and business pilots may have seen and any communication between the 2 plane,” Brickhouse mentioned.
Business plane use Very Excessive Frequency (VHF) radios to speak, whereas army plane function on Extremely Excessive Frequency (UHF) channels, making direct communication between them troublesome. Nonetheless, the management tower can talk with each frequencies.
“There are established procedures to separate business and army helicopter site visitors,” mentioned the final aviation group Plane House owners and Pilots Affiliation (AOPA).
However, the collision might result in adjustments.
Military Secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll mentioned throughout a Senate listening to on Thursday that the crash might immediate the army to rethink conducting coaching operations close to the busy Washington, D.C., airspace.
“This appears to be preventable,” Driscoll mentioned. “I feel we’d want to have a look at the place is an applicable time to take coaching threat, and it is probably not close to an airport like Reagan.”
Maps of the Washington DC airplane crash [https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-CRASH/WASHINGTONDC-AIRCRAFT/dwvkkwyzxvm/]
America’s deadliest mid-air collisions https://reut.rs/3EfhnJT
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Further reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Enhancing by Joe Brock, Nick Zieminski and Jamie Freed)
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