An American Airlines flight has collided in mid-air with a Black Hawk helicopter in Washington DC, with both crashing in the Potomac River
The jet, which was coming from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. Three soldiers were in the helicopter
Nineteen bodies have been recovered so far, a law enforcement source says
The US Figure Skating Association confirms “several members of the skating community“ were on board the plane
The collision happened near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport around 21:00 local time
US President Donald Trump says he has been briefed on the “terrible accident” and questions why the helicopter didn’t “go up or down”
Meanwhile, a former RAF pilot and broadcaster George Bacon has told the BBC that military aircraft and helicopters routinely fly near passenger planes.
Bacon says “I’ve flown as a military pilot in the US and I’m somewhat familiar with the airspace around Washington DC. It’s highly congested but civilian and military traffic share one radio frequency”.
Bacon adds that military pilots enjoy much greater freedom when it comes to navigation than they would over UK airspace: “The military regulate themselves and pilots can choose to fly where they want and need to. In controlled airspace like this, they would still have the freedom to take avoiding action, but they would be following the direction of the controller. The emphasis is that they must look – it’s known as ‘see and avoid’.”
This contrasts with civilian airliners, he explains, which are expected to follow fixed flight paths.
When asked about radio traffic alerting the helicopter pilot to the presence of the passenger aircraft in the capital, he says: “It’s standard for air traffic controllers to ask simply ‘do you see the aircraft’. There would be a very clear instruction – so this would be down to the pilot of the military helicopter to avoid the commercial aircraft.”
He added that It is not unusual for military helicopters to be in such close proximity to commercial aircraft and that investigators will establish what’s happened and if there are lessons to be learned, and an amendment to the procedures.
BBC/ Oluwayemisi Owonikoko
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