5 Takeaways From The Times's Investigation Into the Jan. 29 Collision at National Airport

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: New York Times

5 Takeaways From The Times's Investigation Into the Jan. 29 Collision at National Airport

New details show that the failures leading up to the midair collision of a regional jet and an Army helicopter were more complex than previously known.


The control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in February. Kent Nishimura for The New York Times

By Kate Kelly and Mark Walker
Reporting from Washington
April 27, 2025, 5:04 a.m. ET

It is clear that something went terribly wrong the night of Jan. 29, when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan National Airport, killing everyone on board the aircraft.

But one error did not cause the worst domestic crash in the United States in nearly a quarter-century. Modern aviation is designed to have redundancies and safeguards that prevent a misstep, or even several missteps, from being catastrophic. On Jan. 29, that system collapsed, a New York Times investigation found.

Up to now, attention has focused on the Black Hawk's altitude, which was too high and placed it directly in the jet's landing path. But The Times uncovered new details showing that the failures were far more complex than previously understood.

Here are five takeaways from the investigation:

{snip}

Kate Kelly covers money, policy and influence for The Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/kate-kelly

Mark Walker is an investigative reporter focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/mark-walker

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/us/politics/takeaways-investigation-airport-collision.html

[Cirsium]

1. Paywall

What are the 5 Takeaways?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Do you have a library card?

Your friendly local library has the NYT available in a database.

I have found, though, that if you go in via Google News, you can read the whole article.

And good afternoon.

[LauraInLA]

3. Archive.ph still usually works well for the NYTimes.

[Cirsium]

4. Thanks

[Cirsium]

5. Five take aways

• The Black Hawk crew was under "see and avoid" rules. See and avoid lightens the controllers workload, but can go very wrong, as it did in this case. They didn't see and they didn't avoid.

• The FAA regulations say that the air traffic controller should “advise the pilots if the targets appear likely to merge.” The controller did not give an urgent or clear warning.

• "Some of the controller’s instructions were 'stepped on' — meaning that they cut out when the helicopter crew pressed a microphone to speak — and important information likely went unheard." Also, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, broadcasts an aircraft’s position, altitude and speed on the Black Hawk was turned off.

• "The route the helicopter was flying and the runway the jet was using to land formed a particularly dangerous combination." The controller was executing a "squeeze play" - "tightly sequencing runway traffic with minimal time between takeoffs or landings. " That meant there was little margin for error.

• The co-pilot on the Black Hawk told the pilot that the controller wanted them to turn, which would have prevented the collision. The pilot either did not hear that or ignored it.

[Omaha Steve]

6. AFTER a review by forum hosts LOCKING

Analysis of an event from 3 months ago.

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