There were two aborted landings before the crash as reported by The Washington Post. About that…
According to a report in The Washington Post, a plane aborted its landing to miss hitting a military helicopter on Tuesday night, just a day before the deadly crash on Wednesday that killed all those in the airplane and helicopter. On Jan. 23, a plane from Charlotte aborted its landing because a helicopter was in its way.
As for the Tuesday flight PAT11’s near miss with Republic Air, we now know there were over 1000 feet between them, which is a good safety barrier. The pilot of Republic Air decided to abort and do another go-around. There was no danger. Go to 09:44 on this link. We don’t have information on the alleged Jan. 23rd flight.
On Wednesday night, an inbound commercial flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River. Sixty-seven people were killed.
Safety concerns are now being raised given the close proximity of Runway 33 and the helicopters’ location. Also, a controller is usually dedicated to helicopters and another to planes, but only one air traffic controller was assigned to helicopters and aircraft.
The Narrow Lane
The Post reported that the narrow lane for helicopters keeps them away from jetliner flight paths in much of National’s airspace. Still, it intersects with the path of aircraft on the southeastern approach to Runway 33, which is where American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita was attempting to land Wednesday.
“That helicopter route goes right underneath the final approach,” Jim Brauchle, an Air Force veteran, said. “I was kind of taken aback by that.” Even if airplane and helicopter pilots are doing everything right, he said, they “potentially only have separation of a couple hundred feet. Why is this routing so close together?”
The warning might have come late, possibly 3 seconds before the crash. The helicopter was possibly flying within the bounds of the route, though high. The air traffic controller’s screen might have shown the helicopter at 200 feet while the plane was at 325 feet, give or take 25 feet.
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