The National Transportation Safety Board sharply citicized the Federal Aviation Administration for its inaction before the deadly midair crash above Washington DC in January.
A Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger jet near Washington Reagan National Airport.
In a hearing, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy slammed the FAA for not ‘taking ownership’ after it was aware of thousands of similar close proximity events in the past three years.
It was well known there ‘was a problem’ with U.S. Army helicopters flying close to passenger aircraft.
Sixty-seven people died after a regional American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter.
“Every sign was there, that there was a safety risk and the tower was telling you that,” Homendy said.
“Yet you know what FAA did, after the accident occurred, you transferred out the air traffic manager, two assistant general managers. You transferred people out instead of taking ownership over the fact that everybody in FAA tower was saying there was a problem.”
Some reports warned that the flight space was ‘an accident waiting to happen’ and some describe near misses just like the accident which occurred in January.
“Why did it take 67 lives to be lost to realize that you had helicopters flying under civilian aircraft, and people in the tower saying, there was an issue here and not being heard,” Homendy told reporters after the hearing.
During the hearing, FAA officials cited ‘bureaucratic process’ as a barrier to addressing these potential dangerous issues.
Homedy said the FAA chain of command goes through 21 steps to change certain safety policies.
A major factor in the crash was likely that Black Hawk helicopters had faulty altimeters and didn’t know how close in altitude the helicopter was to the incoming plane.
