Over three days of sometimes contentious hearings this week, the National Transportation Safety Board interrogated Federal Aviation Administration and Army officials about a list of things that went wrong and contributed to a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet colliding over Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.
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The biggest revelations: The helicopters altimeter gauge was broken, and controllers warned the FAA years earlier about the dangers that helicopters presented.
At one point NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy scolded the FAA for not addressing safety concerns.
Are you kidding me? Sixty-seven people are dead! How do you explain that? Our bureaucratic process? she said. Fix it. Do better.
Victims of the January crash included a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches and four union steamfitters from the Washington area.
Here is a look at the major takeaways from the hearings about the collision, which alarmed travelers before a string of other crashes and close calls this year added to their worries about flying:
The helicopters altimeter was wrong
The helicopter was flying at 278 feet (85 meters) well above the 200-foot (61-meter) ceiling on that route when it collided with the airliner. But investigators said the pilots might not have realized that because the barometric altimeter they were relying on was reading 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) lower than the altitude registered by the flight data recorder.
The NTSB subsequently found similar discrepancies in the altimeters of three other helicopters from the same unit.
An expert with Sikorsky, which makes the Black Hawks, said the one that crashed was an older model that lacked the air data computers that make for more accurate altitude readings in newer versions.
Army Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that an 80- to 100-foot (24- to 30-meter) discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter would not be alarming, because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Plus Army pilots strive to stay within 100 feet (30 meters) of target altitude on flights, so they could still do that even with their altimeters that far off.
But Rick Dressler of medevac operator Metro Aviation told the NTSB that imprecision would not fly with his helicopters. When a helicopter route like the one the Black Hawk was flying that night includes an altitude limit, Dressler said, his pilots consider that a hard ceiling.
FAA and Army defend actions, shift blame
Both tried to deflect responsibility for the crash, but the testimony highlighted plenty of things that might have been done differently. The NTSBs final report will be done next year, but there likely will not be one single cause identified for the crash.
