SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — American Eagle Flight 5342, coming from Wichita, Kansas, crashed with a Black Hawk military helicopter Wednesday night as it was approaching Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.
Washington, D.C., Fire Chief John A. Donnelly Sr. said in a Thursday morning news conference that officials do not believe anyone survived.
The D.C. crash has similarities with the 1978 tragedy in North Park, when Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 crashed with a Cessna, killing a total of 144 people.
The 1978 plane crash played a pivotal role in developing new technology that helps today’s pilots flying for commercial airlines avoid crashes.
That same technology is now in question with the D.C. crash.
According to the San Diego History Center,the 1978 crash and others that occurred after led to improvements in the Traffic Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS.
The San Diego History Center states:
“Early versions of the TCAS had been in development since June 30, 1956, when two commercial airliners collided over the Grand Canyon. But those versions were impractical due to their complexity.110 The current TCAS, introduced in 1987, is now installed in all commercial passenger and most commercial cargo airplanes. Its on-board radar beacon sensors, encoding altimeters, transponders, and computers automatically give pilots direct, immediate knowledge of potential mid-air collisions. It also recommends avoidance maneuvers.”
The San Diego History Center states that TCAS is a system that gives pilots direct and immediate knowledge of potential mid-air collisions and recommends avoidance maneuvers.
According to The Washington Post, the TCAS is now being called into question for the D.C. flight.
The Post’s article states:
“As another layer of protection against midair collisions, airliners are equipped with the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS, which issues automated verbal alerts to pilots to avoid an imminent crash. Experts said it will be up to investigators to determine whether the pilots received any warnings from the system, whether the military aircraft was detected by the system or whether it was providing alerts at such a low altitude with many other aircraft around…”
The Washington Post wrote that investigators will need to figure out if the TCAS sent any warnings to the pilot flying the American Airlines plane and whether the military aircraft it crashed into was detected by the system.
Jim Kidrick, President & CEO of the San Diego Air & Space Museum, was a Navy pilot for more than 20 years and said TCAS will only work if both aircraft Wednesday night had their transponders on.
Kidrick said the investigation will soon find out. He also said that because of the low altitude, it is likely that the military aircraft was not using TCAS.
“Most TCAS involvements, aren’t used in the immediate airport environment, very close to landing,” Kidrick said. “In this particular case, you have an airplane coming in on final, without any expectation of a mid-air collision at all.”