Plane experts consult how collision occurred in the “most controlled airspace”

The aviation world is struggling to understand how a deadly collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter could happen in what an expert described as “the most controlled airspace in the world.”

A Black Hawk helicopter from the US Army. Uu. With a crew of three collided with an American Airlines plane that transported 64 people second before the passenger plane was land at the Washington National Airport.

Both aircraft were sent to the race at the Potomac River ice cream on Wednesday night.

The airspace on the capital of the United States sees hundreds of civil and military flights every day, including helicopters responsible for transporting high -ranking officials and politicians between sensitive places.

But the aviation expert based in the United Kingdom, John Strickland, said that the amount of commercial air traffic in the area cannot completely explain why the deadly collision could occur.

In addition to Washington National near the city center, he says, is International Gateway, Washington Dulles and also Baltimore Airport a little further.

“There must be the management of traffic flows to maintain separation. It is very similar to London where you have to administer traffic flows between Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick and London City.

“So DC is no different in that sense for London or New York … it is not totally unusual.”

However, there is a lot of restricted airspace over the Columbia district, home in the Capitol of the White House and the United States Capitol, just on the other side of the Potomac River from the National Airport.

Experts agreed that the intersection of civil air traffic with regular military flights makes DC airspace more complex.

Philip Butterworth-Hayes aviation consultant said the incident occurred in the “link of the different aviation systems”, including civil and military systems, as well as the specific procedures for the airport.

“You are on the border of three or four aviation systems here, and it is on those borders where most accidents tend to happen,” he added.

Butterworth -Yes continued: “This is the little most controlled of the world’s airspace. You have government and civil government systems: Ronald Reagan’s airport is the property of the government, it is one of the very, very few like that.

“This is really the safest airspace, and it should be the safer airspace in the world, given the amount of civil safety and security organizations that work in that area.”

The last fatal accident that involved a commercial plane in the United States was in February 2009. Both officials and experts have emphasized that this type of incident is incredibly rare due to strict safety restrictions on all types of flights.

The experts agreed that both airplanes would have been in direct contact with civil air traffic control.

The images obtained from a Source of air traffic control by CBS News, the American news partner of the BBC, showed the two planes that seem to have been involved in the clearly visible accident in the accessible radar systems for the controllers.

The audio obtained by BBC News seems to confirm that the helicopter was in contact with air traffic control at the airport.

The helicopter was asked if he had the passenger plane “in sight” and “passed it behind.” In the following audio, the controllers seem to realize that there has been a collision and can be heard directing other aircraft in the air to neighboring airports.

Butterworth-Hayes said that a collision in the air like this requires a series of things that go wrong.

He said that to fly in the civil airspace, the military helicopter would have needed to be equipped with a transponder warning of the planes surrounding his position.

That means that both airplanes should have been seen with each other, he says, there would also have been instructions on air traffic control and a aircraft protection security device that operate separately from each other.

“On this occasion, it has these two different systems and both should have been able to maintain these separate planes.”

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

The United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said the helicopter crew had “enough experience” and participated in an annual night flight training session.

Speaking to CNN, Cedric Leighton, a colonel retired from the United States Air Force, said it was normal for such military plane to train at night in the area, particularly to ensure that pilots are competent with the use with the use of instruments necessary to fly in the dark.

He said that one of the duties of the unit is to transport high -ranking personnel around the capital; However, it is now known that only the crew was on board at the time of the collision.

The unit’s pilots are expected to be competent to fly in the occupied Airspace of DC and “train to avoid incidents like this,” he added.

Butterworth-Hayes said that only experienced pilots could train in such a occupied section of airspace.

“Whether it is training for new systems or equipment, we need to know what systems the pilot had activated in the helicopter and if they had all the security systems on board, or if they were testing a new procedure or a new route.”

In statements to the Newsday program of the BBC World Service, Australia headquarters with headquarters in Australia, Neil Hansford, said that the collision raises specific questions for US Aviation authorities and that it will probably lead to a procedure review.

He said it would not happen in Europe or Australia because there are more strict rules that govern flight routes.

Another factor in the tragedy, says Strickland, is the lowest speed at which the plane flew because it was going to land.

“If an important shock occurs, there is not really at any time, even if the crew survives, to do something.

“The plane has a degree of vulnerability due to its speed. It can be imagined that a similar result would have even been with a much larger plane.”