The pilots of a Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger plane near the Washington Reagan National Airport in January never heard the instructions of an air traffic controller to pass behind the plane, said the National Board of Transport Security at an audience on Wednesday about his investigation into the accident that killed 67 people.
Approximately 15 seconds before the collision, the controller asked Black Hawk if he had the plane in sight, since he was in the approach to the earth. Three seconds later, the controller instructed the helicopter to pass behind the plane, but the helicopter crew had accumulated its microphone at the same time as the controller and never listened to the instruction, according to Black Hawk’s flight recorder.
The new details were part of the new evidence and the details of the six -month investigation reviewed on Wednesday. The NTSB Launched thousands of documents Including the new video from the end of the track that shows the accident, on its research on the January collision between Flight 5342 by American Airlines and the helicopter that was on a training flight.
The relatives of the victims attend a research hearing from the National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) on the collision in the air of January 29 of a Black Hawk Black Hawk helicopter from the Sikorsky Army and the American Airlines 5342 flight on the Potomac River near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, at the NTSB headquarters in Washington, DC, July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
The accident killed 64 passengers and crew on the plane and the three crew members in the helicopter.
The families of the victims of the shock sat at the audience hearing, some of which took photos of their loved ones around their necks or in buttons. They broke in tears when officials reproduced the video with recently released surveillance images of the incident.
During three -day hearings, the NTSB is expected to question the Army, the officials of the Federal Aviation Administration and others, and present their finding about the investigation of the accident. The NTSB will focus on a variety of issues in the audiences.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy and Members Flight 5342 Over The Potomac River Near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, ATSB Headquarters in Washington, DC, July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
“We are going to focus on [air traffic control]So the control and training of air traffic, the orientation, the procedures, which was happening in the air that night, and again, which is within the reach of the FAA, “said NTSB president Jennifer Homendy to journalists on Tuesday.
The NTSB will also discuss collision avoidance systems in airplanes, as well as any safety data available and was not available, and how safety management systems can be implemented and improved.
The probe results indicated that the jet and the helicopter were on different frequencies and could not be heard. The flight data recorder shows that the American Airlines flight captain stopped from one to two seconds before the collision, presumably in an effort to avoid Black Hawk.
More information about one of the Black Hawk pilots, Captain Rebecca Lobach was also revealed.
In February 2022, Lobach failed an annual examination of Goggy Night Vision, but other night vision goggle exams passed since then, according to researchers.
He had flown 56.7 hours in the last year, an average of 4.7 hours per month. Lobach also had a temporary medical suspension of the flight service in 2024, according to researchers.
On the eve of the investigation hearings, the Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced a legislation called “The Rotor Law”, which would require that all aircraft, including the military, transmit the location of ADSB when flying, a system that allows airplanes to transmit their location to other aircraft, as well as air traffic controls.
It is required that all airplanes that fly above 18,000 feet have ADSB, but certain airplanes, including military aircraft, are exempt from transmitting ADSB’s location for security reasons.
The relatives of the victims attend a research hearing from the National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) on the collision in the air of January 29 of a Black Hawk Black Hawk helicopter from the Sikorsky Army and the American Airlines 5342 flight on the Potomac River near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, at the NTSB headquarters in Washington, DC, July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, said the NTSB recommended that the FAA to demand ADSB in all airplanes almost two decades ago.
“ADSB, and I cannot emphasize this enough, it is a change of play, a change of game when it comes to security and will provide, as we said in 2008 an immediate and substantial contribution to security. This will save lives. This legislation will save lives,” said Homandy.
In its preliminary report, the NTSB said there are no indications that the Black Hawk team can say that it was in a collision course with flight 5342, which was landing at the same time that the helicopter was spending the end of the track.
A research hearing from the National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) on the collision in the air of January 29 of a Black Hawk Black Hawk helicopter on January 29, a 5342 flight of the Potomac River near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, takes place at the NTSB headquarters in Washington, DC, July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
The helicopter team could have had bad information from its altimeter, which measures the height, since the pilots had different altitudes at the seconds before the accident, said the NTSB in its preliminary report in February.
“We are seeing the possibility that there is bad data,” Homandy said at that time.
It is possible that the helicopter crew has not heard a transmission of the tower that indicated that they went behind the plane because the pilot may have packed their radio in the same second and the ATC transmission had passed, they showed the results of the preliminary reports of NTSB.
A helicopter pilot thought they were 400 feet and the other thought they were 300 feet. The NTSB said it was not prepared to say exactly how high the helicopter in the impact was.
