The location where a PSA Airlines MHIRJ CRJ700 struck a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on 29 January is a busy flight corridor for military rotorcraft.
On any given day, numerous Black Hawks and other types, including Bell-Boeing V-22 Ospreys, can be seen zipping north or south at low altitude along the eastern bank of the Potomac River south of Washington, DC.
“I watch those helicopters travel up and down that river every single day. They always come up on the right side,” says John Goglia, an aviation safety consultant and former board member with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The collision happened while the CRJ700, operating as American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita, was on final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National airport’s runway 33, the Federal Aviation Administration confirms.
The CRJ700’s pilots intended to land on the less-used runway 33 at Washington National. The airport is in Virginia on the west bank of the river.
Aircraft primarily arrive and depart using the airport’s main, 7,169ft (2,185m)-long runway 01/19, which is aligned north-south, roughly parallel to the river. For those approaches, jets typically track the Potomac’s west bank.
Regional jets sometimes land on the shorter 5,204ft-long runway 33, but doing so requires flying north along the east bank of the Potomac and then turning northwest to cross the river.
Flight-tracking websites and reports indicate the collision happened over the river near the east bank, shortly after the jet made the northwest turn. That is airspace where military rotorcraft commonly fly low.
The CRJ700 was only about 0.5 miles (0.8km) from the runway when it and the Black Hawk collided, apparently sending both aircraft plummeting into the Potomac.
The investigation has only just started, but Goglia wonders if the UH-60 was equipped with a Traffic Collision Avoidance System, which is required for passenger jets. The system only prevents collisions if both aircraft are equipped, notes Goglia.
Flight tracking data from multiple sources, including FlightRadar24 and ADS-B Exchange, indicates the incident UH-60, flying with the call sign PAT25, was not operating with an active flight transponder.
