Posted on 08/05/2025 9:08:28 AM PDT by Red Badger
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearings on the devastating Washington, DC, helicopter-plane crash that killed 67 people revealed devastating findings last week, with Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy scolding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for ignoring safety concerns.
The NTSB interrogated FAA and U.S. Army officials on the series of events that led to a Black Hawk helicopter colliding with a passenger jet as it descended into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport during what the Associated Press (AP) described as “three days of sometimes contentious hearings.”
The 64 passengers and crew killed on the American Airlines flight included a group of young figure skaters, coaches, and family members returning from Wichita, Kansas, Breitbart News reported.
The helicopter also had no survivors, losing all three crew members in the tragic accident.
Last week’s hearings not only revealed that the Black Hawk’s altimeter gauge was broken, but that air traffic controllers had warned the FAA years earlier about the growing risk of helicopters flying in close proximity to landing airplanes.
“Are you kidding me? Sixty-seven people are dead! How do you explain that? Our bureaucratic process?” Homendy said to FAA officials at one point. “Fix it. Do better.”
As the Associated Press reported:
The helicopter was flying at 278 feet (85 meters) — well above the 200-foot (61-meter) ceiling on that route — when it collided with the airliner. But investigators said the pilots might not have realized that because the barometric altimeter they were relying on was reading 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) lower than the altitude registered by the flight data recorder.
The NTSB subsequently found similar discrepancies in the altimeters of three other helicopters from the same unit.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I meant the process for swapping out units to send to PMEL, not that the technicians at PMEL were deficient ...
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