AlterNet
January 30, 2025

A plane flies next to an air traffic control near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., January 30, 2025.
January 30, 2025

A plane flies next to an air traffic control near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., January 30, 2025.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
One of the air traffic controllers at the Washington D.C. National Airport was reportedly doing the work of two employees before the deadly mid-air collision that killed dozens of people Wednesday night.
According to the New York Times, staffing at the airport's control tower on Wednesday was "not normal for the time of day and the volume of traffic." The paper cited an internal preliminary safety report from the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.), which apparently mentioned that one unnamed air traffic controller who was communicating with helicopters was also "instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways." Typically, those jobs are assigned to two controllers, rather than one.
CNN reporter Omar Jimenez corroborated that reporting on Thursday. He tweeted that an unnamed "air traffic control source" confided to the network's transportation reporter Pete Muntean: "there was one air traffic controller working two different tower positions at the time of the collision Wednesday night."
One of the air traffic controllers at the Washington D.C. National Airport was reportedly doing the work of two employees before the deadly mid-air collision that killed dozens of people Wednesday night.
According to the New York Times, staffing at the airport's control tower on Wednesday was "not normal for the time of day and the volume of traffic." The paper cited an internal preliminary safety report from the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.), which apparently mentioned that one unnamed air traffic controller who was communicating with helicopters was also "instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways." Typically, those jobs are assigned to two controllers, rather than one.
CNN reporter Omar Jimenez corroborated that reporting on Thursday. He tweeted that an unnamed "air traffic control source" confided to the network's transportation reporter Pete Muntean: "there was one air traffic controller working two different tower positions at the time of the collision Wednesday night."
The Times reported that the reason there are usually two air traffic controllers handling communication between planes and helicopters is that pilots of those aircraft can sometimes use different radio frequencies. This means that sometimes helicopter and airline pilots may not be able to hear each other, which adds layers of complication if just one lone controller is handling that job.
As of September 2023, the D.C. National Airport had just 19 fully certified air traffic controllers on staff, whereas both the F.A.A. and the air traffic controllers' union have said there should be a target number of 30. Years of employee turnover and low federal spending levels have left both the D.C. airport tower and other airport control towers across the country chronically understaffed, with the Times reporting that many air traffic controllers work 10 hours a day, six days a week.
During a Thursday press conference, President Donald Trump suggested without evidence that diversity, equity and inclusion-based hiring practices (also known as "D.E.I.") by the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden were to blame for the crash. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) called Trump's comments "sickening" and suggested that they were a diversion from his January 22 decision to fire every member of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which had been out of commission for more than a week at the time of the crash.
Click here to read the Times' report in full (subscription required).
Human factors aviation psychologist identifies 'biggest red flag' in DC plane crash

Former National Transportation Safety Board investigator Alan Diehl on January 30, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via CNN / YouTube)

Former National Transportation Safety Board investigator Alan Diehl on January 30, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via CNN / YouTube)
January 30, 2025
ALTERNET
67 people are feared dead after a fatal mid-air collision between a regional jet and a helicopter at the Washington D.C. National Airport on Wednesday night. Now, one former investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is offering one likely scenario that could have caused the crash.
On Thursday, Alan Diehl — a human factors aviation psychologist — joined CNN to discuss the fatal collision between an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas and a Black Hawk U.S. Army helicopter. Diehl suggested that the fact that the Black Hawk pilots may have been wearing night vision goggles could have been a factor due to those goggles limiting their field of vision. However, he theorized that the helicopter pilots may have been distracted by something else entirely at the time of the crash.
"The biggest red flag that I've noticed so far is there was a third aircraft up there that night," Diehl told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "And when you look at that very painful video of the collision, you can see the lights of another aircraft. And the thing that the NTSB will have to sort out, is it possible that the Black Hawk crew — whether or not they had night vision goggles on — saw the other target, the other airplane, and thought it was the American jet.
READ MORE: 'Mass casualty incident': Video emerges of mid-air explosion that shut down DC airport
"And of course they were going well behind the other aircraft, but they may not have seen the American jet. It could have been hidden by part of the cockpit structure of the Black Hawk, whether or not they had the goggles on," he continued. "So that's the kind of thing that the NTSB will have to address."
Diehl, who worked on the NTSB's investigation into the 1982 Air Florida crash at the D.C. airport, went on to explain that in Black Hawk helicopters, there is a piece of metal that runs down the middle of the aircraft's windshield that is called the "A-pillar" in cars. He likened it to a driver's "blind spot" preventing them from seeing other vehicles on the road.
"If the American jet was behind that structure, it is possible ... by the time they realize that, 'oh my gosh, there's there's the American jet right in front of us,'" Diehl said. "'m a human factors aviation psychologist. So it takes several seconds for the human to respond. Plus the helicopter has got to respond. So it may well be that by the time they saw the American jet, they didn't have time to avoid it."
"Of course, the controllers are very busy, the pilots are busy. And normally this doesn't happen," he added. "But this night, things just went bad. Very, very badly. And that's what the the safety board will have to address. Now, what they'll do is they'll look at the eye position of the two pilots and the Black Hawk to see what structures might have been blocking their view of the American jet."
READ MORE: Trump's claim diversity and Democrats 'could have' caused deadly collision causes backlash
Watch the video of Diehl's segment below, or by clicking this link.
ALTERNET
67 people are feared dead after a fatal mid-air collision between a regional jet and a helicopter at the Washington D.C. National Airport on Wednesday night. Now, one former investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is offering one likely scenario that could have caused the crash.
On Thursday, Alan Diehl — a human factors aviation psychologist — joined CNN to discuss the fatal collision between an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas and a Black Hawk U.S. Army helicopter. Diehl suggested that the fact that the Black Hawk pilots may have been wearing night vision goggles could have been a factor due to those goggles limiting their field of vision. However, he theorized that the helicopter pilots may have been distracted by something else entirely at the time of the crash.
"The biggest red flag that I've noticed so far is there was a third aircraft up there that night," Diehl told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "And when you look at that very painful video of the collision, you can see the lights of another aircraft. And the thing that the NTSB will have to sort out, is it possible that the Black Hawk crew — whether or not they had night vision goggles on — saw the other target, the other airplane, and thought it was the American jet.
READ MORE: 'Mass casualty incident': Video emerges of mid-air explosion that shut down DC airport
"And of course they were going well behind the other aircraft, but they may not have seen the American jet. It could have been hidden by part of the cockpit structure of the Black Hawk, whether or not they had the goggles on," he continued. "So that's the kind of thing that the NTSB will have to address."
Diehl, who worked on the NTSB's investigation into the 1982 Air Florida crash at the D.C. airport, went on to explain that in Black Hawk helicopters, there is a piece of metal that runs down the middle of the aircraft's windshield that is called the "A-pillar" in cars. He likened it to a driver's "blind spot" preventing them from seeing other vehicles on the road.
"If the American jet was behind that structure, it is possible ... by the time they realize that, 'oh my gosh, there's there's the American jet right in front of us,'" Diehl said. "'m a human factors aviation psychologist. So it takes several seconds for the human to respond. Plus the helicopter has got to respond. So it may well be that by the time they saw the American jet, they didn't have time to avoid it."
"Of course, the controllers are very busy, the pilots are busy. And normally this doesn't happen," he added. "But this night, things just went bad. Very, very badly. And that's what the the safety board will have to address. Now, what they'll do is they'll look at the eye position of the two pilots and the Black Hawk to see what structures might have been blocking their view of the American jet."
READ MORE: Trump's claim diversity and Democrats 'could have' caused deadly collision causes backlash
Watch the video of Diehl's segment below, or by clicking this link.
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