The New York Times published a lengthy investigation into the helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines plane in late January. It concludes that the female pilot, Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, was to blame.
Voice recordings from the Black Hawk show Capt. Lobach flying too high and being told so repeatedly. She said that she would descend but two and a half minutes after that command, she doesn’t.
The control tower gives her repeated instructions but she may not have heard them if she was pressing the microphone to speak to the tower at the same time, like how two walkie talkies can’t speak to one another at the same time.
Capt. Lobach is also told by her flight trainer to turn left away from the jet but she does not.
The Times indicates that the air traffic controller could have “done more” to prevent the crash such as alerting the jet that the Black Hawk was not following commands and in their way but the controller and the flight trainers aboard the Black Hawk did repeatedly instruct Capt. Lobach to move away from the jet. Why she didn’t is anyone’s guess.
There are other worrying aspects of the report though. Moments before the crash, the Black Hawk had asked permission for “visual separation” after it was warned by Air Traffic Control about the passenger plane. This means that a pilot takes “control of navigating around other aircraft, rather than relying on the controller for guidance.” It is reportedly routine but since the crash, the F.A.A. has limited its use.
Couldn’t this be seen as…they practice on us, the civilians? They practice NOT being guided around civilian planes? Couldn’t they practice that on each other!? Should this many people have had to die before they quit that?
During a recent press briefing on the crash transportation secretary Sean Duffy said this about it:
“Having helicopters fly under landing aircraft, and allowing helicopter pilots to say, ‘I’ll maintain visual separation’ — that is not going to happen anymore. That is too risky. You’re threading the needle. And it’s going to stop.”
