The aircraft apparently collided at about 350 feet above ground as the jet was on final approach to Reagan National Airport. (see flight path link below)
PSA Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered at Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio. The airline is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group
The airspace in the area is very congested and under special flight rules and restrictions. VFR Pilots must pass an 80-page course to fly in the Washington D.C. Special Flight Rules Area. (SFRA). The commercial and military pilots involved in the crash would not have been subject to this rule, but are subject to extensive flight rules in the area. (see FAA restrictions link below)
Coordination with Air Traffic Control can sometimes be an issue with rapid-fire instructions from the tower to aircraft in the area and sometimes communications are garbled or weak between aircraft and ATC. "Bluestreak 5342" is the aircraft that crashed and can be heard at the beginning of the recording below as it's instructed to and on runway 33. "Pat 25" was the callsign for the Army helicopter piloted by an Army Captain.
The callsign for aircraft "Bluestreak 5347" which is heard as it prepared to land on runway 33 but is instructed to "go around," to abort the landing, starting about 1:10 into the recorded audio. The airport is then closed and aircraft are sent to other airports to land. (see Reagan Tower recorded radio with aircraft at the time of crash - link below)
The Reagan National airport was closed and is scheduled to reopen at 11 am Thursday.
-LiveATC.net audio: https://forums.liveatc.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=18169.0;attach=13000
-FAA Flight Restrictions: https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_9433.html
UPDATE: President Trump has called the crash a result of diversity hiring and said he came to that conclusion by "common sense."
No comments:
Post a Comment