DC airplane crash knowledge present conflicting altitude readings from American Airlines jet and navy helicopter | EUROtoday

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Preliminary flight knowledge from the lethal mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. navy Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, DC has proven a major discrepancy in altitude readings between the plane upon collision.

Data from the flight recorder inside American Eagle flight 5342 urged it was cruising at about 325ft, with a 25ft margin of error on both facet, when the plane collided over the Potomac River, adjoining to Reagan National Airport at 8:53 p.m. final Wednesday, in line with the National Transportation Safety Board.

However, knowledge gathered from the air visitors management tower learn that the navy helicopter was flying at an altitude of about 200ft upon colliding with the industrial airplane. The approximate 100ft discrepancy has not but been defined.

Officials hope that flight knowledge from the Black Hawk’s black field might reconcile the altitude variations. Investigators are working to extract moisture from the system which was retrieved from the Potomac River Thursday.

Two black containers from the American Airlines airplane have been additionally recovered with a cockpit voice recorder and a flight knowledge recorder being taken for lab evaluation, the NTSB mentioned Friday. They additionally mentioned they plan to refine the tower knowledge, which may very well be much less dependable.

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The company’s investigator in command of the case, Brice Banning, mentioned the airplane’s “crew had a verbal reaction” with a rise in pitch – the upward motion of the plane’s nostril – recorded, adopted by the sounds of affect one second later. It isn’t instantly clear whether or not it meant the pilots have been making an attempt to keep away from the crash.

The Independent has contacted the NTSB for extra info.

Officials haven’t but unveiled the reason for the collision that’s believed to have taken the lives of 67 passengers and crew touring on the 2 plane, with 55 our bodies being recovered from the Potomac River’s icy waters by Saturday night.

However, President Donald Trump mentioned Friday that the Black Hawk helicopter was flying “too high” and “far above its 200 foot limit.” He added: “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”

People with data of the matter admitted that the helicopter was flying 100 toes above its most altitude, in line with The New York Times.

A preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration additionally discovered that staffing on the Ronald Reagan Airport air visitors management tower was “not normal” on the time of the lethal collision between the plane.

An air visitors controller was given the job of two individuals after one employee clocked off early on the night of the crash, a supply instructed The Times.

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All 64 individuals aboard the American Airlines jet and three aboard the Army helicopter are believed to have died after the plane crash

On Sunday, DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly mentioned divers nonetheless want to search out the our bodies of 12 victims who’re unaccounted for.

Teenage determine skating stars, a civil rights lawyer and a former magnificence pageant winner have been amongst these killed within the devastating crash.

Mourners gathered on the finish of Runway 33 – the place Flight 5342 was meant to land – in a personal memorial held for the family members of the victims on Sunday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was set to supervise crews start lifting the remainder of the American Airlines regional jet from the underside of the Potomac River on Monday, Colonel Francis Pera instructed the Washington Post.