American Mid-Air Disaster. What We Now Know.

Today we summarize what we know about the tragic American Airlines mid-air collision over the Potomac River, the worst air accident in the US since 2001 and the first major one since 2009.

Here is what we know.

1. American Eagle Flight 5432 from Wichita Kansas was cleared for visual landing on runway 11 at Ronald Regan National Airport
2. At about 6miles out ATC requested the pilots perform a visual landing on runway 33 instead.
3. This frees up the main 7,100 ft runway for departing aircraft.
4. The American Eagle crew performed a text book turn to the right and then a left base approach to 33 which is shorter at 5,200ft.
5. The work load would have now been higher on the CRJ as they had prepped for Runway 11 not 33. However, they were stable on approach to 33 and at the right heights.
6. ATC was on the ball, and you can hear in the radio transmissions that they advised the helicopter, a UH-60 Blackhawk, coming out of Bolling Air Force Base about the CRJ.
7. ATC can be heard asking the helicopter (PAT25) if he had visual it, and then told to pass behind it. An air traffic controller said, “PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?”
8. The helicopter pilot said he had it in sight and acknowledged ATC. The controller then said, “PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ.”
9. However, the helicopter pilot may have confused the CRJ with the considerable amount of background light or he was looking at another jet taking off from Reagan at that time.
10. There were reports- which we covered that the Blackhawk helicopter had is ADS-B disabled which is true. However, the Traffic Collison Avoidance System, which relies on the ADS-B signal, doesn’t work the same way under 1000ft and the CRJ was at 350ft when the collision occurred.
11. Pilots have told us that the approach to runway 33 takes a lot of concentration, especially in the final turn, and sometimes the lights of the city blend in with any traffic you may or may not see.
12. Also, with the CRJ in the left banking turn the pilots may not have seen the helicopter at all as it was going in from the right and climbing.
13. And the helicopter made a last-minute change of course toward to CRJ and as the helicopter was approaching from the aircraft’s right the helicopter pilots would not have seen the landing lights.
14. The helicopter crew made six course changes in the final 90 seconds.
15. Both crews have been described as very experienced and the crew of the helicopter were on a routine annual reindorsement night flight, rather than a training flight as it was initially described.  
16. The NTSB, Americas crash investigator will report within 30 days but it’s likely more information will come out before then.