Fox News: Black Hawk crew may not have heard message to 'pass behind' DC-bound plane before midair crash: NTSB

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Black Hawk crew may not have heard message to 'pass behind' DC-bound plane before midair crash: NTSB

The NTSB said Army Black Hawk crew may not have heard a message to "pass behind" the D.C.-bound passenger plane before the Jan. 29 midair crash over the Potomac River.......                    ...                        ...Officials confirmed the crew of the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided midair with an American Airlines passenger plane near You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login may not have known it was flying too high and may not have heard critical messages from air traffic control prior to the fatal crash.......The Jan. 29 crash over the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, which happened during an Army "flight check," killed 67 people. There were no survivors.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a news conference Friday that critical messages from air traffic control, relayed to the Black Hawk just seconds before the crash, may have been missed.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......Less than 20 seconds before the collision, a radio transmission from the tower was audible on both cockpit voice recorders (CVR), directing the Black Hawk to "pass behind" the CRJ passenger plane. ......"CVR data from the Black Hawk indicated that the portion of the transmission that stated, 'pass behind the ...,' may not have been received by the Black Hawk crew," Homendy said. ......The transmission was stepped on by a .8-second mic key from the Black Hawk, as the Black Hawk was keying the mic to communicate with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login (ATC), according to the NTSB.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......The instructor pilot then told the pilot flying that ATC appeared to be asking for the helicopter to move left toward the east bank of the Potomac River.......While the NTSB confirmed the Black Hawk was flying too high at a radio altitude of 278 feet, the agency also noted the barometric altimeters in the cockpit may have been showing the crew a different figure......."We are seeing conflicting information in the data, which is why we aren't releasing altitude for the Black Hawk's entire route," Homendy said. "We are looking at the possibility [that there] may be bad data. Were they seeing something different in the cockpit that differed from the [flight data recorder] (FDR) data, which was radio altimeter?"......The two previous issues had the possibility of being remedied by the Black Hawk's automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B), which can prevent traffic conflicts by estimating spacing and separation.......But the NTSB said it was "not transmitting" during the flight, prompting a review of equipment, programming and whether there was an equipment malfunction.......Another possibility, Homendy said, is that the ADS-B was turned off.......The agency will continue to investigate, while also assessing visibility concerns.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......Homendy said the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login was likely wearing night-vision goggles throughout the flight, which could have affected what they were able to see in the dark near a bright airport......."It's going to be a factor in our visibility study," she said. "We're going to have to see what was possible for them to see at the time, leading up to the collision and the accident sequence."......Recorder data shows there was no audible reaction from the Black Hawk crew prior to the crash, indicating they were not aware of the impending collision....

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