Helicopter crew in collision with plane may not have heard key instruction from tower, NTSB says

The crew of the Army helicopter that collided in midair with an American Airlines jet near Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport may have had inaccurate altitude readings in the moments before the crash, and also may not have heard key instructions from air traffic controllers to move behind the plane, according to investigators. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters on Friday that the recording from the Black Hawk helicopter cockpit suggested an incomplete radio transmission may have left the crew without understanding how it should shift position just before the Jan. 29 crash, in which all 67 aboard the two aircraft were killed, “That transmission was interrupted — it was stepped on,” she said, leaving them unable to hear the words “pass behind the” because the helicopter’s microphone key was pressed at the same moment. Homendy said the helicopter was on a “check” flight that night in which the pilot was undergoing an annual test and a test on using night vision goggles. Retired airline pilot John Cox, CEO of the aviation safety consulting firm Safety Operating Systems, said the helicopter’s pilots had accepted responsibility to avoid the plane two minutes earlier when they asked for and received permission to maintain “visual separation” with the jet — allowing it to fly closer than otherwise may have been allowed if the pilots didn’t see the plane.