Almost Miss were warning signs in front of Washington Crash

Pilot Mike Slack was in the cockpit during a descent to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport nearly two decades ago when he noticed something on the runway.

Mr. Slack, a licensed pilot and now aviation lawyer, sat in the real pilot seat as his aircraft prepared to land on the runway 33 – the same runway that the death sentenced American Airlines aircraft approached as it collided in the middle of the air by a helicopter This week.

A departure -Cessna -citation plan pulled on the runway to leave. His aircraft quickly aborted the landing, climbing back into heaven and began to circulate the airport to try again – a flight called a sudden lap.

“It was one of the moments you go,” man who was close and it was tight, “he told the BBC.

While almost lacking in the airport and across the country is far from the norm, and deadly collisions are even rarer, Wednesday’s crash, with 67 people dying, has renewed calls for reassessment of security protocols and shone a ramp light on air traffic at Reagan National Airport.

“When something like this happens, it’s typically something that slides past many protective measures,” said retired air traffic controller Ron Bazman, whose son, wife and brother have all worked as controllers. “Rarely is it a smoking gun.”

The reason for the collision is still determined, but the media and the White House are reset on actions taken by the helicopter and about staff for flight control at night to the crash as they speculate on what went wrong. It’s the worst in the middle of the air in America since the 1980s.

My Aeronautics Professor R. John Hansman said it is important to take the status of security concerns, but also to recognize that the US aviation system is one of the safest in the world.

“This was terrible,” he said, noting that there has not been a major commercial plane crash since 2009. “But it is not as if the system is falling apart.”

Since his comments, a small medical transport aircraft crashed into buildings in Philadelphia Friday night, just two days after the Washington crash. Jet wore four crew members, a child patient and the patient’s escort, Jet Rescue Air ambulance said in a statement.

FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) examines the crash. In a statement, President Donald Trump said, “So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Several innocent souls lost.”

An American Airlines flight that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, came in for a landing when it collided with a Sikorsky H-60 ​​Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night. The army helicopter was taken off from Fort Belvoir, close by in Virginia, on a training mission.

Recording of conversations about air traffic management published online suggests that a controller warned the helicopter about the jet in seconds before the collision. The helicopter pilot seemed to confirm that they were aware of the aircraft, but moments later collided the two aircraft.

Located in Virginia in the heart of the capital, the airport has become unusually popular with travelers, but it faces several logistical challenges, such as overloading in the airspace and shorter runways.

With nearly 400 flights daily and about 22,000 commercial flights a year, it delivers direct service to 98 destinations in the US and Canada and is a feeding airport to international hubs in areas such as Philadelphia, Charlotte, Atlanta and New York.

Several pilots with whom the BBC spoke said that flight in and out of the small airport at the edge of the US capital can be a nail -biting experience.

“There are times when we see aircraft land and we find ourselves saying ‘who’s close’,” Pilot Mo Khimji said, noting that strong cross winds can push a plane to limited airspace “of a whisker” if the pilot not careful.

Several types of aircraft share the airspace, from Air Force One, which transports the president to commercial flights and military helicopters. And at night, the city lights from the Potomac River reflect and make visible and see other aircraft even harder.

It is also less than other airports, such as nearby Dulles International Airport, where Mr Slack calls it a stamp.

“It’s a challenging arrival, challenging approach. You have traffic around you – above, below and to each side,” he said.

Mr. Slack’s experience of an almost miss is not an isolated incident. Just 24 hours before the deadly collision, a military helicopter came too close to another regional jet, which then performed a sudden lap, according to a list of events and accidents from FAA.

After several national events in 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a security review that warned that “a close call is too many”.

The review raised alarms.

“Insufficient, inconsistent funding” as well as staffing deficiency had led to an “erosion” of security standards that made “the current level of security unsustainable” found it.

Chronic air traffic control deficiency affects the ability of the FAA to maintain safety standards, found the safety review in 2023.

Last year, the agency hardly exceeded its employment target for 1,800 controllers – with the 11th, but the 2023 review found that these very goals were inadequate to “sufficiently satisfactory system needs”.

Prof Hansman said staff problems have been a “eternal” concern as waves of employees have been withdrawn. Mr. Bazman, the retired air traffic controller, said Covid worsened a lot of staff problems.

“It’s a domino effect, it’s really,” he said.

Exercise for the highly specialized job with safely guiding aircraft, often full of people, in the air and on the ground can take as long as three years.

When the staff are short, available workers are put into the most critical positions and some roles become unspoken.

Prof Hansman warned against blaming the controller deficiency for the recent collision and saying, “There is no indication that there was a controller -in -competence problem.”

With the budget for FAA, determined by Congress – and the head of FAA, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate – the organization can sometimes fall prey for ups and downs in Capitol Hill, the security review noted.

The chronic controller deficiency deteriorated when a 35-day US government’s shutdown, which started in 2018, paused a break.

Political pressure has also affected Reagan, specifically.

Last year, US legislators tried to add landing places that, through FAA’s budget re -Recurrorization, just two weeks after an almost miss at the airport – one step Virginia senator Tim Kaine opposed.

“We shouldn’t pinch more flights on the busiest runway in the United States,” Kaine told other legislators.

Then there is the stable rotation of people at the top of the role of FAA administrator. In three years, the agency has had as many administrators.

When the American Airlines Jet and Helicopter collided on Wednesday, there were actually no few administrator.

Biden-SappoinEe Michael Whitaker had withdrawn in December, only one year into his five-year period. Media reported that the early departure was spurred by an adviser to President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, who had called for Whitaker’s resignation after FAA proposed fine his Rocket Company Spacex $ 600,000 to alleged violations of launch.

While Trump has appointed a functioning administrator in the wake of the crash, the permanent administrator has to undergo a congressional approval process.

Prof Hansman said the rotating door to administrators makes it more difficult to make material changes or improvements.

“It continues to continue, it continues to function as it has,” he said.

But after Wednesday’s crash, a change was to be expected, Todd Inman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to the media on Friday night.

“Our job is to find facts. More important is that our job is to make sure this tragedy does not happen again – no matter what anyone may say,” he said.

“We are in favor for years for changes to be made.”