1 of 7 | A coast Guard barge with crane drifts by in the background as emergency response units continue to search the crash site of an American Airlines plane on the Potomac River near the approach end of runway 33 at Ronald Reagan International Airport in Arlington, Va., on Saturday. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 1 (UPI) — Investigators are analyzing data from the airliner, helicopter and control tower for the mid-air collision that killed 67 Wednesday night, and the U.S. Army has identified the third soldier killed.
National Transportation Safety Board officials during a media briefing on Saturday evening said they only have part of the data analyzed to determine the exact times and altitudes of the Army Black Hawk helicopter that carried a crew of three and the American Airlines passenger jet that carried 64 passengers and crew.
Investigator in Charge Brice Banning said investigators have the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from airliner, which was recovered by an FBI dive team on Thursday.
He said the flight data recorder contains all of the data from the aircraft’s entire flight and 2 hours and 4 minutes of the plane’s cockpit voice recorder.
The helicopter’s flight data recorder is undergoing decontamination from water immersion in the Potomac River and will be turned over to investigators, likely by Monday.
The airport tower data is preliminary and undergoing additional verification to ensure accuracy.
Initial collision timing announced
Banning gave a minute-by-minute accounting of the collision as the helicopter and passenger airliner approached the Washington, D.C., airport.
At 8:15 p.m. EST, the airliner began its initial descent from 37,000 feet and at 8:39 was cleared to land using the airport’s Mt. Vernon Runway 1 approach.
At 8:43, the tower controller asked the airliner to switch to Runway 33, which its crew agreed to do after a brief discussion.
At 8:45:27, the aircraft’s autopilot was disconnected.
At 8:46:01, the tower radioed the helicopter to inform its crew that the air traffic south of the Wilson Bridge was the airliner circling Runway 33 at an altitude of 1,200 feet.
At 8:47:39, the tower radioed the helicopter crew to ask if its pilots could see the airliner and 3 seconds later told the helicopter to pass behind the airliner.
At 8:47:58, the crew “had a verbal reaction, and FDR data showed the airplane beginning to increase its pitch,” Banning said. “A second later, sounds of impact were audible, followed by the end of the recording.”
Event data to be completed by Monday night
NTSB board member Todd Inman confirmed the Black Hawk helicopter crew was on a training flight that required night vision goggles but investigators don’t know if the pilots were using the goggles when the collision occurred.
Inman said investigators so far only have one complete piece of the three types of data needed to accurately determine every second of the airliner’s and helicopter’s flight paths and voice data.