Understanding what transpired inside the Army Black Hawk helicopter and precisely what altitude it was flying at when it collided with a passenger jet will likely be crucial to solving the tragedy, according to aviation experts, as federal investigators continue to look into what caused the deadliest U.S. air crash in nearly 25 years.
According to officials, a regular operation in clear weather on Wednesday involved two seasoned Army pilots at the controls and a third pilot sitting behind them. The mission was part of an annual evaluation to test a pilot’s knowledge and skill in the cockpit. The flight path was also well-known: Over Washington, D.C., the sound of military helicopters is a constant.
However, the UH-60 Black Hawk crashed into a commercial airplane carrying 64 people, leaving no survivors, and the training flight ended in a fireball in the night sky.
Investigators warned against making judgments before they have had a chance to examine official flight data, but publicly accessible data seen by NBC News indicates that the Army helicopter might have been flying too high at the time of the disaster.
The precise altitude at impact and other information should be provided by the flight data recorders, or “black boxes,” that investigators have retrieved from the American Eagle jet and the chopper.
According to Jonathan Koziol, a senior Army aviation adviser who is assisting with the inquiry, “there are many experts out there, but until we get the data from the black boxes, that’s the only truth, and we won’t know that for a little while.”
According to officials with the National Transportation Safety Board, which is in charge of the inquiry, both aircraft were in transition before the incident.The Army helicopter, American Eagle Flight 5342, was changing flight paths as it descended to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. This maneuver is frequently carried out in the crowded airspace around the nation’s capital. Approximately 375 feet was the last known altitude of the passenger flight, according to FlightAware, an aviation tracking website. However, according to Federal Aviation Administration regulations, helicopters are typically not allowed to fly higher than 200 feet close to Reagan.
According to publicly accessible data, the passenger plane was precisely where it should have been, at the proper height, while the Army helicopter was not, according to aviation lawyer and former U.S. Marine Corps aircraft mechanic Tim Loranger. According to Loranger, if the official flight data supports those conclusions, it will raise a number of new issues.
According to him, investigators would want to know if the pilots received inaccurate altitude data due to a mechanical issue with the helicopter’s equipment. They will inquire as to whether the air traffic controller identified an altitude issue with the helicopter and provided explicit instructions to address it. Additionally, they will be examining whether the Army pilots have accrued enough flight time in the last few months to maintain their proficiency.
According to Loranger, who has defended relatives of service men killed in military aviation crashes, flying an aircraft is not like riding a bicycle. Maintaining your sharpness and piloting abilities requires constant practice.
The instructor pilot had over 1,000 flying hours, according to Koziol, the Army aviation consultant, while the co-pilot, who was being evaluated, had roughly 500 hours.
“That crew has a lot of experience,” he remarked. That’s exactly right. Koziol said that he was unsure of the last time either of them had flown.
Two of the three Black Hawk crew members were identified by the Army on Friday as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O. Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia.
According to the Army, the corpses of the two other troops have not yet been found, and O Hara is thought to be dead pending a definite identification of his body. Nobody on the passenger jet made it out alive. According to local officials, 28 victims have been identified thus far, and 41 sets of remains have been retrieved, as of Friday.
The passenger jet, flight routes, and air traffic control operations are all being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is in charge of the investigation into the deadly incident.
A source with knowledge of the probe told NBC News that a controller was allowed to finish their shift early by an air traffic control supervisor in the Reagan National tower. As a result, one controller was left to manage local helicopter and airplane traffic, which is permitted by FAA rules but unusual at Reagan at that time of day.
Additionally, they are investigating the possibility of an overcrowded airspace above Washington, D.C.
According to airport officials, Reagan Airport now serves almost 25 million passengers yearly, compared to its original design of 15 million. Airport personnel and elected officials have been debating whether this sharp rise has an effect on air traffic safety for years.
Military aviation is inherently dangerous. Pilots frequently have to handle dangerous situations under extreme pressure while conducting combat and rescue missions; training flights created to get them ready for those missions have their own risks, and some experts worry that these risks have been increasing recently. The Army saw the most significant aviation mishaps in a decade in fiscal year 2024, one of which included a Black Hawk.
Whether the Army pilots were using night-vision goggles at the time of the accident is another unanswered topic. In a video uploaded on X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the Black Hawk pilots were equipped with night vision goggles. It’s unclear, though, if the pilots were actually using them. Although some experts claim that the devices could impair a pilot’s eyesight in a crowded, brilliantly lighted airspace, they can help pilots navigate in the dark.
According to Loranger, flying in that area while wearing night-vision goggles would be extremely risky since it would just be a bright mass of light that would be highly distracting.
Rodney Sangsland, an Army veteran who retired from the military and trained new pilots on Black Hawks for 20 years, disagreed. Sangsland claimed to have flown more than 5,000 hours wearing night-vision goggles, including in places with lighting. According to him, pilots are trained to constantly check their surroundings, even if the goggles may reduce their field of vision.
“I have faith in them,” he declared. They are invaluable.