Whereas the Military Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airways regional passenger jet close to Washington, D.C., in January seems to have been oblivious to the hazard everybody was in — the American pilots reacted with alarm mere milliseconds earlier than impression.
That’s in response to a transcript of the conversations within the cockpit of Flight 5342, between Capt. Jonathan Campos, the pilot, and Sam Lilley, the primary officer and co-pilot.
The transcript was launched this week by the Nationwide Transportation Security Board as a part of a brand new investigative listening to that began on Wednesday, July 30, and can proceed till Friday, Aug. 1.
The NTSB has spent months analyzing what precipitated the crash over the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport on the evening of Jan. 29.
All 64 individuals on the passenger flight have been killed together with the three crew members of the helicopter.
Main points earlier than the collision included the helicopter not seeming to understand how excessive it was within the sky, doubtlessly due to a fault measuring instrument; the choice by air visitors management to permit the helicopter to try to manually “cross behind” the bigger jet within the infamously congested airspace; and a long-established sample of navy craft flying across the airport in very shut proximity to business flights — even when it’s not doable for the bigger planes to detect them.
With the hearings underway, the NTSB has additionally launched hundreds of pages of information from its ongoing probe.
Collectively, they supply a extra full image of what was happening within the helicopter, within the passenger airplane and within the management tower within the minutes earlier than the deadliest aviation incident within the U.S. in many years.
The cockpit transcript from the Black Hawk helicopter, piloted by Capt. Rebecca Lobach on a flight again to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, reveals she and her crew have been effectively conscious of the approaching American Airways airplane.
That they had been repeatedly warned about it and have been going to try, they mentioned, to “visually separate” and maneuver round it themselves, which an air visitors controller accepted (fairly than, as another pilots have famous, instructing them to pause within the air).
However the pilots of Flight 5342, on their method from Wichita, Kan., didn’t appear to have any consciousness they have been on a collision course.
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Sam Lilley (left) and Jonathan Campos
The transcript from their cockpit reveals they started speaking with air visitors management 5 minutes earlier than the crash and have been quickly instructed to make use of Runway 33.
They hesitated at that course and mentioned it amongst themselves for about 15 seconds.
“I actually don’t need to however I assume, uhhh inform ‘em–“ one says to the opposite, who begins to answer, “I imply I can simply inform ‘em–“
Then the primary pilot interjects once more: “Nah it’s advantageous, we bought the numbers for it, yeah inform ‘em we’re advantageous, we’ll do 3-3 we’ll do it.”
Within the subsequent a number of minutes, they put together the airplane to land. Twenty seconds earlier than impression, an automatic alert is heard stating “visitors, visitors.”
At nearly the very same time, unbeknownst to the pilots, the Black Hawk helicopter is requesting approval to make use of “visible separation” and fly round them. (The airplane and helicopter couldn’t talk with one another through radio, solely with air visitors management.)
It stays unclear if the helicopter crew knew they have been flying above the altitude restrict of 200 toes, though Lobach’s teacher, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, had notified her at one level about her top and instructed her to “come down.”
One second earlier than the collision, a clicking sound is heard within the American Airways cockpit.
One of many pilots says “oh” — and curses.
The opposite pilot says, extra loudly, “Ohhhh ohhhh.”
The NTSB instructed reporters earlier this 12 months that the information confirmed Flight 5342 was “starting to extend its pitch” — conceivably as a last-ditch effort to get out of the best way, although that has not been confirmed.
Then they crashed.
Capt. Campos was beforehand remembered by the Transportation Safety Administration for his “excellent legacy of management and obligation to others.”
He had been impressed to service, in response to the TSA, after his New York Metropolis police officer father died when he was 9.
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“He typically traveled together with his father’s badge and even had a tattoo of the badge with quantity 4935 on his proper shoulder,” the TSA mentioned.
Lilley, Campos’ co-pilot, was planning for his wedding ceremony when he died, his father, Tim Lilley, beforehand instructed PEOPLE.
“I used to be so proud when Sam turned a pilot,” Tim wrote on Fb in January. “Now it hurts so unhealthy I can’t even cry myself to sleep.”
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