Black Hawk helicopter in D.C. plane crash had a safety system off, senator says

The Army Blackhawk helicopter that collided with an American Eagle flight over the Potomac River late last month was flying with a safety system turned off, Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters Thursday following a closed door briefing by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.

All 67 people on the two aircraft were killed when they collided near Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.

Cruz, a Texas Republican, chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which has oversight of the airline industry.

He said senators were told the helicopter had its automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system turned off. Military aircraft are allowed to fly with that system off.

ADS-B provides detailed granular information to track aircraft locations. The Blackhawk had a transponder, so it would have appeared on radar and was providing flight data, though the ADS-B is much more accurate.

“Unless there was a compelling national security reason for turning it off, that does not seem justified and in this instance, this was a training mission so there was no national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off,” Cruz told reporters.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a former Army helicopter pilot, also noted the questions surrounding the safety system.

“What we don’t know … whether or not the helicopter actually had their ADSP-out turned on. It sounds like it might not have been turned on, but the Army was very clear that the equipment was actually is installed in the aircraft.”

Still, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters the agency’s investigators had not confirmed whether the chopper was even equipped with the technology.

“We don’t know that at this time,” Homendy said before describing the helicopter crew’s mission. “This was a combined night vision goggle annual check ride.”

ADS-B data is one of the data streams fed to air traffic controllers along with Center Radar and Approach Radar. It’s fused together into a single display on controllers’ screens.

Even without the ADS-B data, it has been revealed, the controller involved had a track on the helicopter that showed it at an altitude of 300 feet.  The controller was in touch with the Black Hawk, which indicated it could see the plane and would maintain separation.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned last week why the FAA has allowed military flights with the ADS-B system turned off.

The NTSB will seek to determine if the system was present and turned on — and if not, why not — and whether its use might have helped avoid the accident, though it appears there was enough data that the danger of the situation should have been clear, regardless.

contributed to this report.