Washington air disaster was “preventable” says US government | BBC News

it's the worst us a disaster in more than 20 years a midair crash late last night between a passenger plane and an army helicopter in the skies above the nation's capital 64 people were on board the American Airlines flight and three were on the helicopter now all 67 are presumed dead some of the bodies have now been recovered from the pomac river where the plane came down and that process continues but while it's much too soon to speculate about the cause of the Collision president Trump has blamed diversity rules under his Democratic predecessors saying he

believes people hired at Air Traffic Control were not always qualified he provided no evidence tonight we'll bring you what is known about the Collis and look at some of the questions now being raised in a tragedy air accident officials say was absolutely preventable We Begin tonight with Sarah Smith in Washington rushing to the scene hundreds of emergency services off officers not knowing if there are any lives they can save inflatable boats are needed to reach the wreckage both the plane and the helicopter have crashed in the river the fuselage of the American Airline uh plane

was inverted it's uh been located in three different sections uh it's in about waste deep water uh so that recovery is going to go on today overnight the search was for any possible survivors who might have been lost in the freezing water as morning came it was clear everyone had lost their lives 60 passengers and four crew on American Airlines 5342 three soldiers in the Blackhawk army helicopter despite all his efforts we are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation um at this point we don't believe

there are any survivors from this accident and we have recovered 27 uh people from the plane and one from the helicopter CCTV pictures show the moment of impact very low in the sky over Washington DC the helicopter and the plane are rapidly heading toward each other and then we can see the sudden explosion on closer footage we see the crash quite clearly in the cockpit was 28-year-old American Airlines pilot Sam Lily his father said he started his training six years ago he knew was engaged to be married also on board Wendy Schaefer a wife and

mother whose children are just 1 and 3 years old a married couple of world champion figure skaters from Russia were flying with other athletes they'd been coaching in Kansas very close to downtown Washington and its famous Skyline the wreckage can still be seen protruding from the icy pomac River a distressing site for nearby residents yeah everyone's just distraught and yeah yeah so it's been shocking to everyone just didn't feel right because it's you know I fly with a smaller jet like that when was coming in and uh and uh and I see the helicopters all

the time going through here you I see Marine one constantly going back and forth and uh to Andrews over there and uh it just uh I don't know just it just kind of shocking there are recordings from air traffic control as the accident happened crash crash crash this is alert three crash crash crash fire command um the accident happened in the river um the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river an investigation is already underway into how this accident could have occurred on a clear night when both aircraft were following standard flight patterns military

helicopters do fly over and around Washington all the time this Blackhawk was on nighttime training flight president Trump asked for a moment's silence for what he called a tragedy of terrible proportions before quickly blaming equal opportunity policies at air traffic control for making flying less safe the initiative is part of the faa's diversity and inclusion hiring plan think of that the initiative is part of the faa's diversity and inclusion hiring plan which says diversity is integral to achieving faa's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel I don't think so I don't think so I think

it's just the opposite how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash because I have common sense okay and it is just common sense apparently no evidence has been presented to connect diversity policies with this or any air accident the transport safety board want everyone to wait for the facts and the conclusion of their investigation it's not that we don't have information we do have information we have data we have substantial amounts of information we need to verify information uh we need to take our time to

make sure it is accurate that's best for you that's uh important for the family it's important for legislators who are seeking answers to try to figure out what they're going to do about this but this tragic accident looks like it may become one more Battleground in the political and culture wars in America Sarah Smith BBC News Washington well as we've been hearing it was a clear night visibility was good with eyewitnesses saying everything about the approach into Washington of the American Airlines jet look normal so what do we know about what happened next and what

are the question questions now raised is Ros Atkins the American Airlines flight and the Blackhawk military helicopter collided over the pomac river the first question is whether either was off course the plane marked in blue approached the airport from the south the helicopter marked in red was flying along the river the Trump Administration says both were on a standard flight pattern but right before the crash Air Traffic Control control speaks to the helicopter referring to it as Pat 25 and the plane as crj this is the audio in other words the helicopter was being told

to watch out in another recording we hear what appears to be the helicopter's pilot there's a question here about which aircraft is being referred to because as we can see from the footage there was another plane nearby we don't know if the helicopter pilot had this plane in sight or the one he would collide with soon after we hear air traffic control again I don't know if you caught earlier what happened but um there was a collision on the approaching the 33 we're going to be shutting down operations for the uh indefinite future in the

seconds before what had happened wouldn't there have been an automated warning passenger aircraft in the US use what's called a collision avoidance system one expert though told the BBC the system's warnings can be inhibited when an aircraft's at low altitude lastly would we expect planes and helicopters to share airspace in Washington we definitely would Ronald Reagan National Airport has one of the busiest runways in the US it's just 5 miles from the White House there's a huge amount of military and civilian flights in a relatively small area some aspects of the moments before this disaster

were not unusual but something went terribly wrong why did this helicopter and plane Collide that question still requires an answer Bros Atkins BBC News we're going to focus on some of the people on board the American Airlines jet now with at least 15 of the passengers being athletes coaches and family members involved with us figure skating Laura Scott reports now on the impact of the crash on the tight-knit skating Community brimming with enthusiasm at a training camp for the figure skating champions of Tomorrow among them the teenager Spencer Lane a regional Champion full of promise

and passion only yesterday he said a national development camp in witchar had been an amazing experience but this picture was the last last he posted confirming tragically what many within the figure skating Community had feared that he had been on board flight 5342 Gina Han so too had fellow skater Gina Han both had been accompanied on the plane by their mothers and coaches according to the Skating Club of Boston which has been left reeling we were informed of a pretty horrific tragedy two coaches two teenage athletes and the athletes moms this will have long reaching

impacts for our skating Community the two coaches known to be on board were married couple Jena shishkova and vard Nomo who in 1994 won World Championship gold in pairs for Russia and competed at the Olympics they' been helping to develop young skaters in Boston since 2017 tonight two more clubs said they were mourning the loss of their athletes and spoke of their unimaginable grief amid reports that a quarter of all passengers might have been involved in figure skating the main lesson I think learned in skating is you get back up keep on trying and even

when it's hard you get back up even when you're crying hurt pain you get back up and move forward it's not easy but that's what we all have to do now together please join us now in a moment of silence as we think of those who have been lost and their loved ones tributes paid today at the European figure skating championships in Estonia as the sport reflects on lives and talent taken too soon Laura Scott BBC News well in a moment uh we'll return to Sarah live in Washington but first nomia ibal is at Reagan

National Airport where the passenger jet last night was coming into land and air accident investigators have been speaking where you are nomia in the last couple of hours what have they been saying Clive it's almost back to business here at the airport there have been so many planes flying uh in the skies but if you're a passenger on that plane and you look out the window you will still see the Blackhawk and The Airliner half submerged in the icy waters of the river ptoa the recovery operation is still very much underway behind me now the

the uh National Transportation safety board has said that it's investigating multiple factors it's confirmed that they have not recovered the flight data also known as uh the black boxes they plan to issue a preliminary report in around about 30 days but they have said it will take some time because there's so much information that they have to verify and even though president Trump seems to have prejudge the investigation saying what he thinks caused it the safety board says it's refusing to speculate all right and to you Sarah in Washington was Donald Trump simply speaking off

the top of his head when he was talking about diversity policies perhaps being behind what happened well he didn't have any evidence for that but what he has done is sign a memo demanding that this be investigated that all hiring practices at the Federal Aviation authority over the last four years whilst he's been out of power be investigated and if there there is anybody who has been hired who doesn't meet qualification requirements then they should be sacked and replaced immediately because he says he is convinced that it is these diversity policies that have lowered Aviation

standards now it is being reported here that Staffing levels were not normal in the air traffic control tower last night that jobs would would normally be assigned to two different controllers were being done by just one person who by themselves was having to handle all the planes that were landing and taking off as well as the with all the helicopters that were in that airspace now we don't know whether that's routine on occasions whether that's unusual but it's definitely something that the air accident investigators are going to have to be looking into along with every

other aspect of this crash