Air Traffic Controller Shortage May Have Contributed to Deadly Collision at Reagan National Airport

A supervisor at Ronald Reagan National Airport allowed an air traffic controller to leave early, hours before a passenger plane collided with an Army helicopter in midair. The crash, which occurred shortly before 9 p.m. on Wednesday, killed all 64 passengers on the American Airlines regional jet and three soldiers on the Black Hawk helicopter.

A single controller was left to handle the air traffic of planes and helicopters flying over the airspace when two people would typically be monitoring both flight paths. The Federal Aviation Authority confirmed in a preliminary safety report of the crash that one controller was doing the job of two. Airplane and helicopter traffic is normally handled by two separate controllers until 9:30 p.m., but a supervisor allegedly merged the two jobs before the allotted changeover time.

Staffing levels were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic” over the airspace, the report said. Air traffic staffing will be one of several areas investigators probe as they try to piece together what led to the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 9/11.

In addition, the helicopter may have been flying too high and outside the approved flight path when it collided with the American Airlines plane. The helicopter was above 300 feet when it should have been below 200 feet, four people briefed on the matter reportedly told the Times. It was also reportedly at least half a mile off the approved flight path when it smashed into the plane carrying 64 people.

The bodies of the three soldiers aboard the helicopter have been recovered from the wreckage. Two of them have been named as Crew Chief Ryan O’Hara from Georgia and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves of Mississippi.

Both of the passenger plane’s black boxes have been recovered from the Potomac River and have been taken to labs to examine their contents.