The flight trail that a Black Hawk Army helicopter took before its deadly collision with an American Airlines regional jet aircraft, which is very worried about Air Force officials, closed most helicopters after the most fatal aircraft in the United States. a quarter of the century.
The Federal Aviation Service restricts two commonly used helicopter routes running north and south along the Washington Potomac River, both traveled from Black Hawk that broke to Jet on Wednesday night on all the most important flights.
On Friday, Sean Duffy, the new US transport secretary, who oversees FAA, offered the closures as a crucial new security measure. “The American people are worth full confidence in our aviation system and today’s action is an important step towards restoring this confidence,” he said in a statement.
Mr Duffy is not the first federal official to see the helicopter routes to travel largely around Ronald Reagan National Airport as a problem.
FAA traffic supervisors have seen the blocked air ducts around Reagan for years, which attracts a large number of military and official government flights due to its location as well as a busy trade flow as a point Warning to a 2023 note assessing the impact of the addition of new flights to the airport.
Some legislators are also concerned. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, warned last year about the perspective of the people asking legislators to comment after a tragedy and saying, “You warned you and voted for it anyway.”
Mr Kaine’s prognosis, which took place shortly before Congress, voted to add five new return trips to Reagan, turned out to be painfully true this week after 67 people died in a fiery conflict over Potomac. The divers on Friday was still looking for bodies in the water.
The new helicopter route closure, which had told approved airspace users on Thursday, but were not announced more widely by Friday, effectively excludes helicopter access to the north and south of the airport, a helicopter pilot said in a helicopter. A FAA e -mail notice that talked about the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential message.
FAA did not give the final time for restrictions.
The change cuts parts of two air routes commonly used by military and enforcement pilots of the law along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. A rarely used part of a third route that crosses directly above the airport is now limited.
FAA’s new restrictions make exceptions for helicopter flights that tend to emergency medical conditions that include key government officials or are related to national security missions.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat of Illinois, who expanded Black Hawk helicopters during his military career, described the periods in an interview as “a wise decision for now”.
The recently limited helicopter routes are a part of about four miles of what is called Route 1, which extends from the monument bridge on the Potomac River to the South Capitol Street Bridge on the River Anacostia and the entire quadrilateral 4-Mile 4-Mile 4 From Hains shows the Woodrow Wilson bridge to Potomac.
The army helicopter collided with the political aircraft had flown along the now closed section of route 1 and just turned to 4 south of Hains Point when the crash occurred.
In a news update at the White House on Thursday, Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said the helicopter made a “annual retraining” night long “routine for a standard corridor for a continuation of the government mission”.
On Friday, the army identified two of the three crew members in the black hawk as head of the Great Mills, 39, 39 -year -old, MD. and SGT staff. Ryan O’Hara, 28 years old, of Lilburn, Ga., Black Hawk’s crew leader. The identity of a third member of the crew, a female pilot whose ruins do not yet have been recovered, was withheld at the request of her family, a break from standard practice.
Army officials said on Friday that the female pilot had undergone an annual evaluation flight with officials serving as her assessor.
Such flight practices carrying senior officials to safe locations away from Washington, if the capital of the nation is attacking.
These “continuation of the government” will almost certainly fall within the exception of “national security missions”, according to the pilot who received the FAA alert.
At a press conference early Friday night, officials at the National Transport Security Council, which is investigating the collision, were asked if the airplanes hosting a combination of civilian and military aircraft should be reviewed.
“I can’t give you a definitive answer to this,” said J. Todd Inman, a member of the organization involved in the research. “What I can say is. In this incident, it shouldn’t have happened.”
