Communication error may have caused Washington air tragedy

AlArabiya English

Either a communication error or challenges during the night vision may have caused the Washington passenger plane-helicopter tragedy, Daniel Elwell, former FAA official says.  #Washington #PlaneCrash

Transcript

00:00Of all the theories you're hearing at the moment, what sounds to you like the most convincing

00:05theory as to what caused that tragedy?

00:08Well, hi, Tom. It's a pleasure to be with you. You know, as I look at the events surrounding

00:15the collision, it seems there are procedures. Let me start there. There are procedures that

00:22have been in place for a very long time to reconcile helicopter traffic from commercial

00:28airline traffic. And it appears to me that either through inoptimal communications between

00:38the tower and the aircraft involved or night vision issues or errors in one place or another,

00:51those two aircraft found themselves in the same place in space. And it's most likely

00:58a combination of all those things. I mean, there's quite a number of factors that come

01:02into play. There's communications between air traffic control and the aircraft's communication

01:09within the cockpit. There is the issue of flying at night, visual approach at night,

01:18and the close proximity of different types of operations around that airport.

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