Local pilots, Congressman react to crash at Reagan National Airport
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Sixty-seven people are presumed dead after an air crash between an American Airlines passenger plane and a Black Hawk military helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night, CNN has reported.
The same model of airplane involved in the crash -- CRJ 700s -- fly in and out of the Columbia Regional Airport. American Airlines CRJ 700 planes are used for some flights by Skywest between Columbia and Dallas.
Many answers remain unclear at this time as to the cause of the crash.
Jeff Nielsen served in the Air Force for seven years as an instructor pilot and went on to be a pilot for Delta Airlines before he retired in December 2023. During his 35-year career, he flew into Reagan National Airport on a regular basis.
"It can be a little bit tricky flying into and out of the airport," Nielsen said. "It's busy."
He said it is normal for helicopters and air traffic to share that air space.
"There's a lot of helicopter traffic around D.C. and the Potomac River and DCA, and they [helicopters] have certain corridors that they can fly through to keep them basically out of the way of that very busy airport there," Nielsen said.
U.S. Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO) serves on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He was landing at Lambert Airport in St. Louis on a flight out of Reagan National Airport when he heard about the crash.
“I took my phone out of the airplane mode," Onder said. "I started getting texts, and on my Twitter feed were early indications of what was going on in this horrible tragedy.”
Onder is also a pilot. He said this air crash was unprecedented.
“We're going to ultimately end up with some lack of situational awareness on the part of one or both pilots," Onder said. "And then some breakdown in protocols.”
Pilot and flight instructor Braden Tyrer, with Columbia's ExcelAir8, said the situational awareness of a plane is different when landing.
“I would wager that they were 15-to-30 seconds from touching down on that runway," Tyrer said. "And both flight crew members are focusing on the aircraft and the runway coming up to make a safe landing.”
He said while there are many factors to be looked at in the investigation, one thing is certain for him.
“The airliner did nothing wrong," Tyrer said. "They did nothing wrong. But the helicopter, if they were told to be there and fly down the Potomac River at a low altitude right off Reagan's airport, I can't necessarily put the blame on the flight crew if that was the plan that day.”
Nielsen is also an aircraft investigator. He said his take on the air crash is completely speculation, as there are not many details to go off of yet.
"It sounds to me like the military helicopter was supposed to be clearing for the traffic and keeping themselves from the airline traffic," Nielsen said. "And I believe personally that the military crew thought that they were looking at the American Airlines, a regional jet, and they probably misidentified it and were looking at some other lights on another airplane that was a little bit further to the south coming into the DCA area."