It’s being asked again what the Army helicopter pilot did when his Black Hawk crashed into a passenger jet over Washington, D.C., in January, killing 67 people in the country’s worst flight accident in decades.
Even after months of investigations, it’s still not clear why the helicopter and its crew were acting strangely. However, experts from outside the probe have said it might have been a mistake.
The Black Hawk was flying too high, and it looks like it hit the bigger plane straight, even though it was warned several times and the crew said they could see American Airlines Flight 5342, which had 64 passengers and crew, and were going to go around it.
Army Capt. Rebecca Lobach, the helicopter pilot, did not seem to be “suffering from health issues” or have a medical emergency at the time of the crash on the evening of January 29, just outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, according to an article in the New York Times on April 27.
The Times says that Lobach, who is 28 years old, was in the pilot’s seat as part of an annual evaluation.
A group of three people worked on the Black Hawk. Two of them were Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara, 28, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves.
The teacher was Eaves, 39, according to the Times.
Another strange thing about Sunday’s story was that Lobach’s teacher told her that air traffic controllers wanted them to turn left toward the riverbank about 15 seconds before the crash. This might have put them even farther away from the coming plane.
The Times says that Lobach did not do that, though.
What went wrong is being looked into by the National Transportation Safety Board since January. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he believes the tragedy could have been avoided.
If PEOPLE asks the NTSB about the story in the Times, they say that it is based on documents that have been made public so far in the investigation, such as a preliminary report.
“The crew made a mistake.” It wasn’t planned, no one thinks. “The route was bad and set up for disaster,” a Black Hawk pilot who is now working for the company tells PEOPLE. “The teacher is the one you should blame if you have to.” He need to have grabbed the stick. It’s okay for him to do that.
The pilot says, “But we don’t know those last moments.” He could have reached for the stick. He could have been taking over when the plane crashed. No doubt, the team made a mistake. But it wasn’t planned. That’s for sure.
Another experienced pilot, who also asked not to be named, agrees with that judgment.
“Yes, the pilot who was in charge of the plane made a mistake, but the teacher is responsible.” “He should have been in charge,” they say. “I did it myself.”
The second pilot says, “A lot of things went wrong.” He or she lists possible problems with air traffic control and traffic around the airport as other causes. That’s why we have all of these safety measures in place. It looks like Swiss cheese.
“You get all of these Swiss cheese slices with holes in them. That’s where things can go wrong.” “Take care of things so the holes don’t line up,” the captain tells them. “In this case, all the holes lined up.” It happens so rarely. It can be deadly when it does happen.