By: Emma Dognin and Genesis Oquendo
On Wednesday January 28 at 8:47 p.m. two aircrafts collided, leading to an explosion and a trail of smoke in Washington D.C. The crash was caught on the live webcam of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts, a few miles away.
One aircraft was a U.S. Army helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, on a training flight carrying a trio, and the other was an American Eagle jet, a commercial Bombardier CRJ700, coming from Wichita, Kansas, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members.
The jet was on its way to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport but instead plummeted into the frigid water of the Potomac River. On late Friday afternoon, Federal officials announced that they had sharply restricted access to the flight paths along the Potomac River. According to officials, the plane’s fuselage, the body of the plane, was found inverted and separated into three parts in waist deep water, its debris spreading less than a mile.
As of Friday, January 31, no survivors have been found. However, weather conditions such as icy water, wind and murkiness have complicated the search. The Fire and EMS Department in Washington reported that Thursday morning 27 bodies were found from the passenger plane and one from the helicopter. As of noon Friday, 41 bodies have been recovered. All bodies are expected to be recovered. Investigators were able to uncover two black boxes, otherwise known as flight data recorders from the jet.
Some of the victims of the crash include figure skaters and their families returning from the U.S. Figure Skating’s National Development Camp, which held a national championship last week in Wichita, Kansas. These included Jinna Han and her mother Jin Han, Spencer Lane and his mother, Yevgeniya Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, two coaches who were champion skaters from Russia, and Cory Haynos and his parents. Other victims include around seven friends flying back from a duck hunting trip and the crew of both the jet and the helicopter. The U.S. Army identified two soldiers in the helicopter: Chief Warrant Officer 2, Andrew Eaves and Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara.
The crash was primarily due to the dark night sky, which likely made it challenging to gauge the distance between the aircraft, along with the helicopter flying beyond its authorized flight path. Furthermore, American Airline pilots were not able to see the helicopter as they neared the runway, which was switched last minute from Runway 1 to Runway 33. Furthermore, the air traffic controller was performing two roles, which are usually divided between two individuals. According to a Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) report, staffing was not normal for that time of day.
Air traffic controllers have been severely understaffed, forcing many to work six-day weeks and shifts up to 10 hours a day. Specifically, the control tower at Reagan National has been chronically understaffed for years: a third below approved staff levels. On late Jan. 30, F.A.A employees received an email urging them to resign and find opportunities outside of government posts to be “more productive.” A follow-up email from the Office of Personnel Management mentioned that the agency would give federal workers eight months of continued pay, if they agreed to leave by Feb 6. However, in a statement, Nick Daniels, president of National Air Traffic Controllers Association, failed to clearly mention how the resignation would affect the union’s workers. The proximity of the crash to this email hits hard at the F.A.A.
On Thursday, President Trump began his White House briefing with a moment of silence for the victims of the crash. However, his remarks became a tirade after he blamed the efforts to diversify the air traffic control workforce for the crash, without any evidence and despite most of the workforce being white. During a Q&A, he was asked about his claim that the F.A.A. prioritized diversity over quality during Obama's administration and continued this policy in his first term.
The midair collision alongside other global plane crashes like the Jeju Air and Azerbaijan Airlines crashes have put many air travelers on edge. Nevertheless, Anthony Brickhouse, a U.S. based aviation safety expert, said that “air travel remains the safest mode of transportation.” However, he believes that airlines and the government must be more vocal about ensuring safety measures.
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