THE crew of the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the deadly DC air crash with a passenger plane made two key mistakes in the final seconds, a new report shows.
All 67 people onboard the two aircraft died when the American Airlines plane , which was in its flight path.
A bombshell new report has revealed that the pilot just 15 seconds before the collision.
It was America's deadliest air disaster since 2001, and from flying in the airspace.
Piloting the helicopter was Capt. , 28, who was on a training mission under instruction from Andrew Eaves.
Eaves urged Lobach to change course in order to avoid the looming plane, but that never happened, the New York Times reports.
In another error, officials said the pilots “stepped on” the air traffic controller's instructions.
That means they accidentally cut him off by pressing the button to speak over the radio – and likely missed out on key information and warnings.
The pilots were already flying under riskier conditions after requesting to use their own visuals to avoid other traffic, instead of air traffic control's.
This speeds things up, must increases the risk of human error.
Investigators believe that Eaves and Lobach failed to hear that the American Airlines plane was “circling” because one of the was pressing the microphone button to speak when the warning came through.
The air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it could see the descending plane just 20 seconds before the disaster.
He said: “PAT two-five, do you have the CRJ in sight?”;
That was the last communication between the helicopter and ATC.
Finally, technology aboard the helicopter that would have allowed it to be tracked better by ATC was switched off.
This is common practice on real missions – but this was a practice.
Experts have long contested allowing pilots to navigate on their own – acknowledging human error is far more likely to cause disaster.
This is particularly true in busy airspaces, such as around Reagan Airport.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy has since slammed the practice, and said it was like “threading a needle.”;
The Army’s director of aviation, Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, said multiple factors had contributed to the catastrophe.
He said: “I think what we’ll find in the end is there were multiple things that, had any one of them changed, it could have well changed the outcome of that evening.”
According to the report, there was also confusion amongst the three pilots on board about the altitude they were flying at.
There is a 200-ft limit in place at the site of the crash, and the chopper was well above that.
The pilot can be heard on recordings announcing they were at 300 feet, while the instructor pilot cited 400 feet.
Data reveals its true altitude was 278 feet at the time of the crash.
However, the National Transportation Safety Board head Jennifer Homedy said: “That doesn’t mean that’s what the Black Hawk crew was seeing on the barometric altimeters in the cockpit.”;
Regan airport has one of the busiest runways in the US, with more than 800 takeoffs most days.
Retired United Airlines pilot Captain Ross Aimer told the New York Post: “DCA is one of the most demanding airports in the world.
“It also has what’s known as ‘helicopter alley’ with hundreds of police, military, news and rescue helicopters criss-crossing the Potomac River – it’s crazy out there.”
It also emerged at least two other pilotswhile landing at the airport in the three years before the deadly crash.
A passenger flight had to abort a landing at the airport just a day before the tragedy.
Republic Airways Flight 4514 was forced to back out of touching down and had to make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.
