ARLINGTON, Va. — Shortly after a plane landing at Reagan National Airport and a military helicopter crashed into each other on Wednesday night, Jim Brauchle pulled up the airport’s route maps, and he could not believe what he saw.
“When I first saw it I was kind of taken aback by it that there would actually be a published route right through short final approach at a commercial airport,” Brauchle said.
The former navigator for the US Air Force turned lawyer at Motley Rice who works airplane crash cases walked us through the design of the routes where the crash occurred.
On the one hand, you have an airplane starting its descent on to a short runway at 490 feet.
On the other, you have a helicopter passing underneath that is supposed to be at a height of 200 feet.
“You’ve only got a 100-200 foot buffer, and if you have one plane that is a little too low, or a helicopter that is a little too high, you’ve now taken this 200 foot or 150 foot buffer and shrunk it to zero,” Brauchle said.
“I think the reason it was designed that way is because the high volume of traffic, and because of the unique aspects of the Washington DC air space. There are a lot of restricted areas and a lot of secure areas, and so you’ve got an airport with very narrow windows in which to be able to get in and out of,” Brauchle said.
Brauchle also said when flying at night, especially with the backdrop of a city behind you, it can be hard to see.
“A lot of times, and I saw it in my flying experience, what you think you see is not really what you’re really seeing, especially at night,” Brauchle said. “You’re dealing with the limitations of human ability.”
In this case, radio traffic from that night indicates the helicopter pilot told aircraft control they had the airplane in sight even just seconds before the crash.
“Knowing about these physical limitations that all human beings have why would they have designed this airport to have planes coming into this particular runway, to have helicopters coming in beneath that you said had maybe 100-200 feet difference between the two?” CBS 6’s Melissa Hipolit asked Brauchle.
“Right there in lies the question. A lot of mid air collisions we’ve had have been because of failure to see in a void in the aviation context. You would hope in those areas where air traffic control is involved that they are assisting as well,” Brauchle responded.
Radio traffic shows the air traffic controller did confirm with the helicopter that it had the airplane in sight two different times and told the helicopter to pass behind the plane seconds before the crash.
“Does it make sense to you to run military helicopters through that airspace? Does that seem critical to you that we have to have helicopters running through that area?” Hipolit asked.
“My thought would be can’t there be better routing other than through final approach to the only major airport to downtown Washington?” Brauchle responded.
Brauchle said the Federal Aviation Administration would have approved this route configuration, so we asked the FAA why helicopters are allowed to pass through this airspace, and what air traffic control does to ensure the helicopters pass through safely.
The press office did not answer our questions but instead sent the following response:
"AA investigators are supporting the NTSB-led investigation of Wednesday night’s midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport. The NTSB is leading the investigation and will provide all updates. We cannot comment on any aspect of open investigations. The FAA will quickly take any actions necessary based on evidence from the investigation."
The Associated Press is reporting that an anonymous official told them the FAA decided Friday to indefinitely bar most helicopters from using the low-to-ground routes that run under or parallel to the airport’s flight paths.
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