The latest analysis of the Washington D.C. air crash indicates that the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, which resulted in 67 fatalities, may have relied on inaccurate flight data. U.S. transportation safety officials stated that they believe the crew of the crashed helicopter were wearing night-vision goggles and may have been depending on inaccurate flight data before the fatal impact.
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03-04, 2025Preliminary analysis of voice recordings and other black box data recovered from the crash site suggests that the helicopter pilot and her instructor read out conflicting altitudes before the impact. Furthermore, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials stated that some altitude data from the Black Hawk helicopter appeared to be flawed to investigators.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated, "We are seeing conflicting information in the data, which is why we have not released the altitude of the Black Hawk helicopter's entire route." Ms. Homendy indicated that investigators are confident that the helicopter's altitude at the time of the crash was 85 meters, higher than it should have been for that area. But she added, "But I want to remind everyone that this does not mean that this is the altitude the Black Hawk helicopter crew saw."
Investigators believe that one source of the helicopter's altitude data (which relies on atmospheric pressure but is not usually directly used by pilots) was invalid. Sean Payne, head of the NTSB's vehicle recorder data division, stated, "This altitude was calibrated using what we call standard atmospheric pressure, and we found that this parameter was invalid." He added, "It's bad data."
The NTSB has been investigating the January 29th collision between the helicopter and a U.S. Airways Bombardier jet, which resulted in 67 deaths and is the deadliest air crash in the U.S. in over 20 years. Homendy stated that the Black Hawk helicopter crew, who were conducting a night training flight, were considered experienced pilots, but the night-vision goggles they were wearing may have made it difficult to distinguish the jet from the city lights on the horizon.
She noted that the on-site investigation portion of the disaster is now complete. Over the next week, the wreckage will be moved from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to a secure location for more detailed analysis. Investigators will conduct a laser scan of a model of the Black Hawk helicopter cockpit for detailed comparison with the crashed helicopter. Then, they will carefully examine whether the various altimeters and other recovered data systems operated as designed, or were deliberately shut down for some reason.
