(Reuters) -More than 60 people were killed when an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said the midair collision should not have happened, and vowed reforms to “make sure that these mistakes do not happen again and again.”
The cause of the crash is under investigation. Below are the details:
* U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy promised a thorough investigation, leaving no stone unturned to find out what caused the crash.
“We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts,” she told a news conference.
* The NTSB said it was too early to speculate on the cause. “We don’t know enough facts to rule in or out human or mechanical factors,” lead investigator Brice Banning said.
* The NTSB has not yet attempted to recover the airplane’s black boxes, giving priority to efforts to remove bodies of victims, but it is confident it will be able to retrieve them.
* Civil aircraft carry two recorders, one for data and one for cockpit voices. Those will provide vital clues on the last moments of the jetliner flight.
* The helicopter also has a recording system that will be read by the military or NTSB in co-operation, Banning said.
* The NTSB will set up various working groups to break the investigation down by topic including aircraft and engine matters, air traffic control and operations. A group focusing on human performance will span several of those categories.
* Homendy said all investigations study humans, machines and their environment. Safety experts say aircraft accidents are almost invariably the result of multiple factors.
* The NTSB received air traffic control data in the early hours of Thursday and is reviewing it, Banning said. It will take time for the investigation to reach conclusions.
* The NTSB will interview controllers and others as part of the investigation. They will scrutinize the aircraft and training procedures for the Army helicopter.
* Wreckage from the incident is being stored in Hangar 7 at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
* The NTSB said it would meet on Thursday with planemaker MHI RJ Aviation, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), American Airlines and other parties to organize the investigation.
* Canada’s Bombardier designed the out-of-production regional jet but sold the program to MHI RJ Aviation, a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi, in 2019.
* The investigation is being carried out under global rules calling for a preliminary report within 30 days. A final report with analysis is expected within 12-18 months.
* The purpose of such investigations is to establish the probable cause and make recommendations to avoid more accidents.
* The NTSB does not attempt to establish blame or liability.
(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh, David Shepardson and Tim Hepher; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Alistair Bell)
