Investigation into deadly D.C. plane crash focuses on Black Hawk helicopter flight
What happened inside the Army Black Hawk helicopter in the moments before the fatal crash is key to unraveling the disaster as plane collision investigations begin.
As federal officials continue investigating what caused the deadliest U.S. air crash in almost a quarter century, understanding what happened inside the Army Black Hawk helicopter — and exactly what altitude it was flying at when it collided with a passenger jet — will likely be key to unraveling the disaster, aviation experts say.
A pair of seasoned Army pilots were at the controls, with a third aviator seated behind them for a routine mission in clear weather on Wednesday — part of an annual evaluation to test a pilot’s knowledge and proficiency in the cockpit, officials said. The flight path, too, was a familiar one: The buzz of military helicopters is a constant above Washington, D.C.
And yet the training flight ended in a fireball in the night sky as the UH-60 Black Hawk slammed into a commercial airliner carrying 64 people, leaving no survivors.
Publicly available data reviewed by NBC News suggests the Army helicopter may have been flying too high at the time of the crash, but investigators cautioned against drawing conclusions before they’re able to analyze official flight data.
Investigators have recovered flight data recorders, or black boxes, from the American Eagle jet and the helicopter, which should provide the exact altitude at impact and other details.
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