The fatal collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter at Reagan International Airport on Wednesday night was likely a culmination of factors, according to aviation attorney Jim Brauchle, who says “we’ve been lucky” there haven’t been more air accidents.
Brauchle is a former U.S. Air Force navigator who now represents families of victims involved in aviation disasters, including the 2019 Boeing 737 Max 8 crash that killed 157 persons in Ethiopia shortly after takeoff and a 2014 Army Black Hawk helicopter crash that killed a soldier and seriously injured two others on board during a training flight at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia.
“I hate to say this, but a lot of people in the aviation industry have predicted that there was going to be an accident,” Brauchle told Fox News Digital. “No one wants to, you know, say that out loud because obviously that’s a horrific thing. But there’s been a lot of near misses over the last several years. And we’ve been, you know, we’ve been lucky that there haven’t been more of these.”
The collision happened around 9 p.m. EST when a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided in midair with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan National Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. The regional jet had departed from Wichita, Kansas.
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American Airlines said the jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while the military said three soldiers were onboard the Army helicopter. Officials said later Thursday morning that no one is expected to have survived after a massive search-and-rescue operation in the frigid waters of the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia.
Brauchle said there are several ways aircraft avoid midair collisions, especially at the busy Reagan National Airport, including transponders and traffic collision avoidance systems that most commercial aircraft are equipped with, communication with air traffic control and what he called “seeing and avoid,” in which pilots keep a lookout for other aircraft and obstacles.
Brauchle said that keeping a lookout for obstacles is harder than it looks.
“Having flown at night, having tried to look and see traffic, I think most people would say, ‘Oh, how hard is it to miss an airliner,’ right? You should be able to see that. But it’s a lot more difficult than people would expect,” he said.
At night in an urban environment like Washington, D.C., or northern Virginia, pilots may not be able to see other aircraft and instead may rely on seeing anti-collision or landing lights, according to Brauchle. But different ambient lights from tall buildings and towers that are lit may make it difficult to distinguish which lights belong to other aircraft.
“What I’ve heard from the audio is that they called out to [air traffic control]. The helicopter said that he had the aircraft in sight,” the attorney said. “My guess is, and again, I’m just speculating, is they saw something that they thought was the airplane, whether it be a tower light, maybe it was another aircraft that was taking off. Whatever they thought they saw obviously wasn’t the aircraft.”
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Brauchle said that typically, if two aircraft find themselves on the same path, the more maneuverable aircraft is supposed to try to move out of the slower aircraft’s way.
“In this case, it’s kind of a really unique situation,” he said. “Both of these aircraft appear to be where they were supposed to be, or at least on the route. Maybe not necessarily the altitude.”
Citing the published routes for the two aircraft, Brauchle said that even if both aircraft are exactly where they’re supposed to be, there is only a couple of hundred feet of separation.
“If you have any type of, you know altimeter error or a pilot just slightly off altitude, you very easily are putting airplanes in the same airspace,” the attorney said.
Reagan National Airport facilitates commercial, private and military traffic all in a relatively condensed airspace.
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“You’re combining all these different aircraft, all different types of aircraft, all in a very confined space,” he said, noting the swath of restricted airspace in the D.C. area due to national security concerns. “And that’s kind of what’s unique, I think, about Reagan is that it is so congested in such a confined space.”
The cause of the collision remains unknown in the hours after the accident. Hundreds of first responders conducted a massive search-and-rescue operation for survivors, though the operation turned into a recovery later Thursday morning.
Brauchle said that, based on his experiences litigating and investigating such accidents with the Charleston, South Carolina-based Motley Rice law firm, the families of those who died are likely in shock because airplane accidents are “not supposed to happen.”
“What I’ve also seen from the families is they’re always looking for answers,” he said. “They want to know why this happened. Why did they lose their loved one?”
Brauchle said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will likely release a preliminary report in 30 days, and thinks that families will eventually seek litigation as a result of this accident.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into the midair collision, with investigators from the FAA assisting.
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