Air safety failures and last minute mistakes that led to deadly crash

A series of critical air safety failures and last-minute errors led to the catastrophic midair collision in the US that led to the deaths of 67 people, say experts and officials. Follow the updates.

A series of critical air safety failures and last-minute errors led to the catastrophic midair collision over the Potomac River, resulting in the deaths of 67 people, according to experts and officials.

The crash occurred late Wednesday night when American Airlines Flight 5342, travelling from Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter just 400 feet above the iconic waterway in Washington, DC.

The Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had 60 passengers and four crew onboard exploded in a fireball and broke into three pieces. Three soldiers on the chopper were also killed.

Serious lapses and miscommunications in one of the most crowded and complex patches of sky in the US are likely to blame for the disaster, The New York Post reported.

It cited years of staffing shortages and reports of burnout and high stress among the Federal Aviation Administration employees.

NTSB investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier CRJ700 airplane involved in the crash. Picture NTSB

An air traffic control supervisor at Washington DC’s airport allowed another controller to leave early, minutes before a passenger jet collided mid-air with an army helicopter, killing 67 people, it has been claimed.

Radio transmissions before the crash reveal the controller warned the chopper that it was getting too close the CRJ-700 passenger jet, and the experienced helicopter pilot acknowledged.

However, experts believe the helicopter pilot manoeuvred to avoid the wrong plane — a jet of the same model that was taking off farther away — and never saw the American Airlines flight until it was too late.

Former DC-based American Airlines pilot John Wright said the close quarters around the airport left almost no room for error.

Pilots involved in the deadly crash likely had no warning of the impending disaster because of the limitations of collision avoidance systems at low altitudes and the challenges of night vision, an export told CNN.

When flying at night, “about 90% of your vision goes away. Your vision at night is vastly reduced,” aviation lawyer Alan Armstrong said.

“Based on what we’ve seen so far, I’d suggest that these pilots had no awareness of an impending disaster,” he said.

“I don’t think they saw each other coming. If they had, they would have taken evasive action.”

The alarming revelations emerged as authorities worked to retrieve bodies from the freezing water at the crash site.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said investigators had recovered the

the black boxes from the passenger plane.

“The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation,” the agency said in a statement.

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Originally published as Air safety failures and last minute mistakes that led to deadly crash