By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board plan to brief senators Thursday on last week’s midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a military helicopter near Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport that killed 67, a congressional aide said on Wednesday.
In the aftermath of the crash, the FAA has imposed significant restrictions on helicopter flights around Reagan National Airport until at least late February with exceptions for police and medical helicopters, air defense and presidential air transport. The FAA said in a notice posted Tuesday that civilian airplanes may not fly in the area around Reagan National Airport when helicopters are present through March 31.
Senate Commerce chair Ted Cruz plans to host the bipartisan meeting with the agencies. One question that has emerged in the probe is whether the helicopter route near Reagan National Airport was too close to descending airplanes.
On Tuesday, officials said they had positively identified 66 of the 67 people killed in the crash over the Potomac River. Work continues by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to remove wreckage.
Investigators from the NTSB have said they had determined that the CRJ-700 airplane that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, was flying at an altitude of 325 feet (99 meters), plus or minus 25 feet, at the time of impact.
The NTSB said Tuesday updated data shows the Black Hawk was flying at 300 feet (91.5 meters) on the air traffic control display at the time of the collision.
The data indicates the Army Black Hawk helicopter was flying above 200 feet (61 meters), the maximum altitude for the route it was using.
The NTSB has completed interviews with air traffic controllers and obtained training and flight logs for both flight crews and maintenance records for both aircraft.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told Reuters on Monday the NTSB plans to look at prior near-miss incidents between helicopters and airplanes around Washington Reagan National Airport and could expand the investigation “to other areas where there’s military helicopter and air traffic.”
Data confirmed previously that the air traffic controller alerted the helicopter to the presence of the CRJ-700 about 2 minutes before the collision.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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