In the wake of the horrifying collision between a military VH-60 “Gold Top” VIP transport helicopter and an American Airlines flight trying to land at DC’s Reagan International airport, a report has revealed that the deadly collision was sparked in part by one of the air traffic controllers leaving work early that night. Doing so left the responsibility of air traffic control for both helicopters and airplanes combined, contributing to the horrible disaster.
Such was apparently discovered by the Federal Aviation Administration in an internal, preliminary safety report on the Reagan Airport disaster that led to a fireball in the sky and dozens dead, with no survivors on either the military helicopter or the civilian airliner flight.
The New York Times discovered the details of that internal, preliminary FAA report through a source who was briefed on it and staffing issues. Apparently at issue was that one of the air traffic controllers left work early, and so a supervisor assigned responsibility for both helicopter traffic control and incoming flight traffic control to one air traffic controller.
That is quite a breach of normal practice, the New York Times reported, as normally the duties are kept separate for safety reasons. Generally, the paper reported, the duties of handling helicopter traffic in the area and managing incoming planes is divided from at least 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the consistently busy airport. It is only after 9:30 p.m., when air traffic in the area and coming into DC slows down, that those duties can be combined.
But that normal safety practice isn’t what happened on Wednesday, January 30, when the deadly accident occurred. Instead, a supervisor of the air traffic control staff let one of the staffers leave the job early, and then foisted the combined duties on a remaining staffer, the preliminary report found.
That occurred before 10 pm, when there was still a large degree of traffic, and thus was a significant breach of safety protocol. In fact, the aforementioned FAA report found that the staffing situation was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
An FAA spokesperson, speaking about the matter, refused to comment on the potential issue and simply said, “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has 25 Certified Professional Controllers and three Certified Professional Controllers in Training (CPC-ITs). CPC-ITs were previously fully certified at other facilities. The tower is authorized to have 28 controllers.” Listen to air traffic control audio of the crash below:
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President Donald Trump, commenting on Truth Social about the disaster and what might have led to it, said, in one post on the matter, “The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
In another post on the situation, he said, “I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”
And, in another, commenting on seeming issues with the helicopter pilot and the air traffic controllers, he said, “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video