National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators said Friday that the American Airlines crash that occurred last month was possibly caused by two major technical mishaps.
As previously reported, last month an American Airlines flight landing at D.C.’s Reagan National Airport crashed into a Black Hawk helicopter, causing both craft to fall into the Potomac River. There were zero survivors.
Speaking at a news briefing Friday, NTSB Board chair Jennifer Homendy revealed that the crew of the Black Hawk helicopter was possibly operating on inaccurate altitude readings and may have not heard certain instructions from the Reagan National Airport control tower.
NTSB Chair @JenniferHomendy: “17 seconds before impact, a radio transmission from the tower…directing the Blackhawk to pass behind…the portion of the transmission that stated ‘pass behind the’ may not have been received by the Blackhawk crew.” pic.twitter.com/jq8QnqBCoc
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 14, 2025
Seventeen seconds before the crash, the control tower sent a transmission directing the crew to pass behind the jet.
But sadly, data later recovered from the helicopter strongly suggests “the portion of the transmission that stated ‘pass behind the’ may not have been received by the Black Hawk crew,” Homendy said.
Why not? She said it’s likely the crew “stepped on” the transmission by hitting the microphone button at the same time as it was coming through.
As for the inaccurate altitude readings, according to Homendy, the helicopter was flying at 278 feet — way above the 200-foot limit for that area.
But, she warned, “that does not mean that’s what the Black Hawk crew was seeing on the barometric altimeters in the cockpit.”
“We are looking at the possibility that there may be bad data,” she explained.
She further noted that before the crash, the pilot and instructor pilot both read out different altitudes for reasons that remain unclear.
“Neither pilot made a comment discussing an altitude discrepancy,” she said. “At this time, we don’t know why there was a discrepancy between the two.”
#Blackhawk #flight5342 collision
NTSB: helicopter flight recorder revealed the female pilot thought their altitude was 100 feet below the altitude that the instructor pilot believed them to be. pic.twitter.com/STXnsbK5bd
— pro dreamer (@prodreamer1) February 14, 2025
Homendy stressed though that all these findings are preliminary and that more investigating is still required.
Speaking of which, former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz told CNN on Friday that piecing together what happened isn’t going to be easy.
“This is not going to be an easy task,” he said. “It’s a hard job to figure out how this helicopter was off course.”
“To determine the altitude the pilots saw on their gauges as they were flying, investigators will examine the remains of the pitot-static system and air data computer, according to CNN. “Evaluating the altimeters themselves and determining their independent functionality will be another piece of the puzzle.”
“Barometric altitude, which is typically the altitude the pilots would reference while they are flying, was not recorded on the flight data recorder. Normally, investigators would be able to use pressure altitude to compute the barometric altitude displayed to the pilots. Because the pressure altitude parameter is invalid, they have to use other methods to make that determination,” CNN notes.
Concluding the news briefing, Homendy said that if any recommendations need to be made, they’ll be made immediately instead of at the end of the NTSB’s investigation.
“So for example, we will issue an urgent safety recommendation if we see that something needs to be acted on immediately; we won’t wait till the end of the investigation,” she explained. “We won’t wait till the end to issue recommendations in the final report. We will take action. We will issue an urgent safety recommendation if we need to. So that’s open right now in all areas.”
Meanwhile, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from both the American Airlines flight and the Black Hawk helicopter are currently being examined by the NTSB. They’re also scrutinizing the wreckage itself to determine the exact angle at which the collision occurred.
New – NTSB says nose of plane was in a pitch up just seconds before collision. Black Hawk was slightly nose up and in left roll. Initial indicators are the Black Hawk was at 248 feet. Investigators not confident in altitudes of the helicopter. Need further investigation. pic.twitter.com/mfF5ALl4PI
— Paul Wagner (@paulcwagner) February 14, 2025
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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