Thirteen mysterious seconds – may solve the crash mystery

American Airlines
Thirteen mysterious seconds – may solve the crash mystery

Johan Edgar

Updated 00.45 | Published 00.03

The helicopter pilot confirmed that he sees flight 5342.

13 seconds later, a gasping sound is heard from the air traffic control tower.

In between, the disaster occurs – and possibly the answer to the mystery.

         
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Just hours after the crash in the American capital, President Trump has already seemed to accuse both the air traffic controllers and the helicopter crew of mistakes in connection with the tragedy that killed 67 people.

He believes that Biden, for “equality reasons”, lowered the qualification requirements for air traffic controllers during his time as president.

Horrible scenes along the river

Trump also questioned why the helicopter crew failed to avoid the approaching aircraft.

Now it is up to the NTSB, the US National Transportation Safety Board, to investigate what went terribly wrong in the air over Washington DC.

According to Trump, Biden lowered the qualification requirements for air traffic controllers during his time as president for "equality reasons".

On Thursday morning local time, when daylight returned, horrible scenes unfolded along the Potomac River.

Parts of the wreckage bobbed in the water. Divers managed to get into the broken cabin of the aircraft. Body parts floated up along the shore on the Virginia side of the river, according to a CBS News reporter on the scene.

Rescue efforts at the wreckage on Thursday morning. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / AP

Figure skaters and hunters on board

The helicopter was upside down in the water, but appeared to be relatively intact. The two military pilots were still strapped into their seats.

American Eagle Flight 5342, flying on a mission for American Airlines, had been in the air for two hours and 30 minutes when the crash occurred on approach to Reagan National Airport.

It was 8:48 p.m. local time on Wednesday evening.

Until the final seconds, the flight from Wichita, Kansas, had been normal.

The flight was nearly fully booked.

60 of the 65 seats on the Bombardier CRJ700 plane were booked by figure skaters, a group returning from a hunting trip and other passengers.

The crew consisted of four other people, two pilots in the cockpit and two cabin crew.

The rescue operation on the Potomac River during the night. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP

13 central seconds

The plane was about to land on runway 33 when the mid-air collision, which was seen by many shocked witnesses in the capital, was a fact.

A military helicopter of the type Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, with three people on board, was on a training mission and flew at low altitude along the Potomac River.

Audio recordings between the air traffic control tower and the traffic in the air around the airport could be crucial in getting an answer to the mystery.

Both the plane and the helicopter were equipped with a black box where all possible flight data and communication within the crew is preserved.

But communication from the air traffic control tower has already been released, CNN reports.

And it shows that 13 seconds passed from the helicopter confirming that it saw the Bombardier plane until they crossed each other's paths and collided in the air.

The crash occurred on Wednesday evening, when a helicopter collided with the passenger plane

“Is the plane in sight”

The communication shows that the air traffic controller was in contact with both the helicopter (PAT 2–5) and the Bombardier plane (CRJ).

– PAT 2–5, do you see the CRJ? asks the air traffic controller.

– PAT 2–5, pass behind the CRJ, he then says.

– PAT 2–5 has the plane in sight, the helicopter pilot confirms.

After the 13 seconds, a gasping sound is heard from the air traffic control tower.

The time in between is still a mystery.

Eyewitness Ari Schulman was in his car on his way home when he saw the collision.

Tilted to the right

– I saw the plane and everything seemed normal at first. It was just coming in over land, maybe 35 meters above the water. Seconds later the plane tilted completely to the right. More than 90 degrees, he tells CNN.

– I could see the underside. It lit up in a bright orange light and there was a shower of sparks underneath it. Then everything went dark.

Trump's newly appointed transportation secretary Sean Duffy says at a press conference that nothing abnormal was detected in the communication between the tower and the two aircraft before the crash.

They are also said to have flown according to a normal trajectory.

New Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says that the helicopter crew was "relatively experienced" and on a normal training mission.

All 67 people on board are believed to have died in the crash. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / AP

Staff shortage in the tower

The fact that there has been a previous near-accident at Reagan Airport has been given a lot of attention in the American media. The airspace over the capital is crowded and scores of planes and helicopters pass over the area every day.

Just the day before the accident, another plane was forced to abort a landing at the airport because of a helicopter, writes the Washington Post.

A clue to the disaster may be found in the staff shortage in the airport's air traffic control tower.

The New York Times reports that the staffing level on the night of the accident was "not normal." One person was assigned to do the job of two people during the shift in question.

For the investigators at the Accident Investigation Board, this is not a job like any other.

Not only is the accident the deadliest plane crash in more than 15 years on American soil.

The crash site is about a kilometer from NTSB headquarters.