American Airlines
Minister of Transportation: "The crash could have been absolutely avoided"
Information: The helicopter did not respond to air traffic controllers
Oskar Forsberg
Updated 17.16 | Published 15.51
On published audio files, you can hear how the helicopter is warned about the aircraft in Washington.
But the air traffic controllers did not receive a response to the warning.
Moments later, the crash occurred, killing 67 people.
American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas crashed into the Potomac River in Washington DC last night, Swedish time.
The aircraft collided with a military helicopter with three people on board.
The accident occurred during the plane's approach to Ronald Reagan Airport.
The Washington Fire Department does not believe anyone on the plane or helicopter survived the crash.
That means 67 people died in the crash.
This was stated by John Donnelly, the fire chief in Washington, at a press conference.
No response
US authorities will now investigate how the accident could have happened.
In audio files, published online by LiveATC.net, you can hear the communication between air traffic controllers in Washington and air traffic.
In the audio file, you can hear how the military helicopter is warned about the plane heading towards Ronald Reagan Airport.
But there is no response from the helicopter.
Then the collision occurs.
At a press conference that ended at 2 pm Swedish time, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the crash "absolutely could have been avoided".
Was there “standard communication”?
He said the helicopter was on a training mission, but that doesn’t mean the pilot was inexperienced.
– I have no information on how experienced the military pilot was, he says.
According to Duffy, there was “standard communication” between the plane and the military helicopter before the crash.
When asked if the plane was aware that there was a helicopter in the area, Duffy replied:
– I would say the helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area.
The witness: “The sky lit up”
Several eyewitnesses have told how they perceived the situation.
Ari Schulman told NBC Washington that he saw the accident while driving on the George Washington Parkway that runs along the airport.
He said the plane's approach looked perfectly normal until he saw the plane swerve sharply to the right, with sparks below it lighting up the entire underside of the plane.
That's when he realized something looked "very, very wrong."
Having seen planes land there before, he said the underside of the plane shouldn't have been visible in the darkness.
The sparks went from the plane's nose to its stern.
Jimmy Mazeo told the BBC he saw the crash while having dinner with his girlfriend in a park near the airport.
He saw the entire sky lit up with a white light. He said planes that flew into Ronald Reagan Airport afterward appeared to be flying in "irregular patterns."
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