Officials release new air traffic control data from American Airlines crash that shows key information from tragic incident
New light is being shed on the tragedy of the January 29 airplane collision above Washington D.C. between American Eagle flight 5342 and a US Military Black Hawk helicopter.
The crash led to the death of all 67 aboard both vehicles, with the bodies having now been recovered from the Potomac River.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the flight recorder inside the American Airlines flight suggests it was cruising at about 325ft at the time of collision, with a 25ft margin of error on either side.
In contrast to this, data from the air traffic control tower reads that the Black Hawk was flying at around 200ft at the time of impact.
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So far, there's no explanation for the 100ft discrepancy.
Captain Rebecca M. Lobach, Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves were aboard the military craft on a routine training exercise, with the maximum altitude for helicopters in the area being 200ft.
The American Airlines flight reportedly made a last-minute attempt to avoid disaster, with the NTSB's Todd Inman explaining: "At one point very close to the impact, there was a slight change in pitch, an increase in pitch."
Brice Banning is leading the investigation and added: "The crew had a verbal reaction. Sounds of impact were audible about one second later, followed by the end of the recording."
It's hoped that flight data from the Black Haw's black box can explain the differences. It was recently retrieved from the Potomac River, with investigators looking to decipher its own data. Two black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder, and a flight data recorder from the American Airlines plane have been taken to a lab for analysis, hoping that these will be more reliable than the ATC tower data.
This is said to be the deadliest US air disaster since 2001 and has grabbed headlines around the world. It's also been fraught with controversy after President Donald Trump blamed diversity hiring for the crash.
Although investigators say there were five controllers on duty at the time of the crash (a local controller, ground controller, assistant controller, a supervisor, and supervisor in training), an FAA report seen by the AP said that staffing that day 'was not normal'. One person was reportedly doing the job of two people at the time of the crash.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has vowed to give federal aviation investigators the space they need to carry out the inquiry, although he claimed that "staffing shortages for air traffic control has been a major problem for years and years." He concluded by saying that the Trump administration will aim to hire "bright, smart, brilliant people in towers controlling airspace."
Although full NTSB investigations tend to take a least a year, investigators hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days.