Staffing of air control centre ‘not normal’ at time of Washington air crash

Washington: A short-staffed air traffic control centre managing a notoriously congested and difficult airspace may have contributed to the deadliest US air disaster in nearly 25 years.

As officials tried to find out how the midair collision happened, US President Donald Trump baselessly sought to blame diversity hires and political enemies.

President Donald Trump suggested, while providing no evidence, that efforts to boost diversity could have been a cause in the crash.Credit: AP

A preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration obtained by several US news agencies said the configuration of staff at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport was “not normal” for the time of day or volume of traffic, stating the controller or controllers on duty were responsible for both planes and helicopters, instead of those duties being separate.

Dozens of bodies were pulled from the frigid Potomac River on Thursday after an American Airlines regional passenger plane collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter while landing at the US capital’s downtown airport just before 9pm on Wednesday night, local time. All 67 people involved were declared dead: 60 passengers and four crew on the jet, and three helicopter crew.

They included 14 members of the figure skating community – six from one club in Boston – who had been at a camp for talented young skaters after the US championships in Wichita, Kansas, from where the Bombardier CRJ700 departed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began an investigation. Two black boxes – the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – have been recovered from the passenger jet. The agency said it would not speculate on the cause of the crash but aimed to file a preliminary report within 30 days.

However, attention quickly turned to the busy airspace around Reagan airport, which is surrounded by several military bases and where pilots are used to the presence of helicopters. At least two close calls were reported last year, and the day before the crash, an incoming flight was told to abort its landing and “go around” when a helicopter flew near its path.

“It’s a very congested airport,” Virginia senator Tim Kaine told CBS. “It is a concern that I have raised for years. This is an airport that has a modest footprint with a huge number of passengers in and out.”

The airport had an excellent safety record, and it was no time to speculate, he added.

The preliminary FAA document, reported by several US news agencies, said the staff set-up at the time of the crash was “not normal”. It was not clear how many staff members were on duty – only that at least one person was covering two positions, according to the reports.

National Air Traffic Controllers Association president Nick Daniels told CNN it was “not uncommon” for such positions to be combined. However, complaints of short staffing and overwork have dogged air traffic control in the US for years. In 2023, The New York Times reported the number of fully certified controllers had fallen 9 per cent in a decade, while air traffic had increased, and that nearly all sites across the country were understaffed.

On Thursday night (US time), the Times also reported the military helicopter might have been flying too high and outside its approved flight path, citing four sources briefed on the matter but not authorised to speak publicly.

An air traffic control recording showed that seconds before the collision, a controller asked the helicopter if it had the passenger plane in sight, and then instructed it to pass behind the jet.

Trump, meanwhile, pointed the finger at diversity, equity and inclusion employment practices – the so-called “woke” programs he derided before the election and has started to cut since returning to the White House.

The president said controllers had to be “at the highest level of genius”, and asserted changes made under his predecessor Joe Biden reduced competency among recruits. He also attacked Biden’s transport secretary, Pete Buttigieg, calling him “a disaster” who had “run [the FAA] right into the ground with his diversity”.

But asked to provide evidence for these claims, Trump acknowledged there was none. “It just could have been,” he said. “We don’t know, but we do know you had two planes at the same level. That shouldn’t have happened.”

Pushed again as to why he believed diversity played a role, he said: “Because I have common sense, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”

Trump also asserted that the army helicopter pilots were to blame for the accident, saying they “should have seen where they were going” and the chopper “obviously was in the wrong place at the wrong time”. The American Airlines plane had its lights on and “was doing everything right”, he said.

At a press conference, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said every crash investigation examined human, machine and environmental factors. Asked about Trump’s insinuations and whether they hindered the investigation, she said the agency was used to speculation about air crashes, usually from the media.

While not engaging directly with the personal jibes, Buttigieg called Trump’s comments “despicable” and said: “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying.”

Among the grieving was Olympic champion figure skater and Skating Club of Boston alumnus Nancy Kerrigan, who comforted members and their families following the loss of six club members. They included 16-year-old figure skater Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, 13, as well as their mothers and coaches – world champions from Russia Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

Spencer’s father, Douglas Lane, told WPRI in Rhode Island his son had taken up skating in 2022, after watching Nathan Chen win a gold medal for the US at the Olympics. Three years later, he had proven to be a prodigy, qualifying for the elite training camp in Wichita.

“He just loved it,” Spencer’s father said. “There wasn’t anyone pushing him. He was just somebody who loved it and had natural talent but also just worked every day.”

Skating Club of Boston chief executive Doug Zeghibe said the club was “devastated and completely at a loss for words”. It is the second major airline tragedy to affect the club, after a plane carrying the US figure skating team to the world championships in Prague crashed in Belgium in February 1961.

With AP, Reuters

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