DC plane crash updates: Helicopter had advanced tracking system turned off, lawmaker says

Editor's note: This page reflects news of the plane crash near DC on Thursday, Feb. 6. For the latest updates, please read USA TODAY's coverage of the plane crash investigation on Friday, Feb. 7.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army helicopter that collided with an American Airlines plane killing 67 people last week had turned off an advanced surveillance system that has been hailed for making airspace safer, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Thursday.

Cruz, who was among a group of lawmakers briefed on the collision by federal authorities, said the Black Hawk helicopter had switched off its automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast sometime before the Jan. 29 crash.

"This was a training mission, so there was no compelling national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off," Cruz said after a briefing from the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA. He added that the helicopter had a transponder so it would appear on radar, but said ADS-B is significantly more accurate.

The system, which is the preferred method of surveillance for air traffic control in the U.S., improves visibility by broadcasting an aircraft's GPS location, altitude, and ground speed, according to the FAA. The system includes a display showing pilots where other aircraft are in the sky or on a runway.

The helicopter was on a routine training mission when it collided with the airliner, which was inbound from Wichita, Kansas. Data indicated that the Black Hawk may have been flying above its 200-foot flight ceiling, though the NTSB said investigators need to access the crashed aircraft to verify the data.

Salvage crews recover major components of the helicopter

Crews finished recovering "all major components" of the Army helicopter and passenger jet out of the Potomac River on Thursday, Unified Command said, concluding a dayslong salvage operation about one week after the horrific midair collision.

The NTSB said in an update Thursday evening that it is still searching for some parts of the helicopter, including the right engine and tail rotor. Officials said the wreckage is expected to be offloaded from a barge on Friday and transferred to a secure location.

Recovery of the helicopter is a crucial component in the federal probe as authorities seek to confirm data related to its altitude at the time of the collision, according to the NTSB.

In the next phase of the operation, officials said crews will shift their focus to clearing smaller debris before demobilizing equipment by Feb. 16.

To assist with the operation, Unified Command said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will fly over the Potomac at a low altitude and project a green laser onto the water’s surface to scan for debris. The flight will take place around 2 a.m. Friday.

Students, Olympic skaters, families: A tribute to lives lost in the DC plane crash

Reagan National Airport limits flights after crash

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that it would slow the arrivals rate at Ronald Reagan National Airport outside of Washington as weather and recovery efforts affected flight paths into the airport.

"The FAA is slowing traffic into and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport due to weather conditions and recovery efforts in the area," the FAA said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The move was first reported by Reuters, which said that arrivals would be reduced from 28 per hour to 26 per hour during the slowdown. The reduced arrivals rate would likely lead to a slight increase in average delay lengths at the airport while it was in force.

– Zach Wichter, USA TODAY

Senator criticizes Elon Musk’s involvement with FAA

Sen. Maria Cantwell penned a letter Thursday to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urging him to remove "all conflicts of interest" between the FAA and tech billionaire Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla.

The Washington state Democrat cited previous feuds between SpaceX and the FAA over regulations and fines. In response to proposed civil penalties over alleged launch violations last year, Musk had said he planned to sue the agency for "regulatory overreach."

"It is a conflict of interest for someone whose company is regulated by the federal government to be involved in anything that affects his personal financial interest, his company, or his competitors," wrote Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

The letter comes after Duffy announced on X that the Department of Government Efficiency – which President Donald Trump has appointed Musk to lead – was going to "plug in to help upgrade our aviation system."

Officials will address staffing, congested air traffic after deadly collision

The newly appointed transportation secretary said he would change the rules that govern staffing at airport control towers and vowed to examine the congested airspace in the Washington area following the fatal crash at Reagan National Airport.

Speaking about rules that allowed a supervisor to reduce staffing before the fatal crash, Duffy said "We're going to pull that authority back to make sure that we have the right policies in place inside our towers to make sure when you fly you're safe."

Duffy said he also planned to announce steps to increase air traffic control training while hiring more applicants. The FAA is about 3,000 controllers short of staffing levels and nearly all control towers have staffing issues.

Moreover, Duffy said officials would look at military missions in Washington airspace and see whether they could be scheduled at times when traffic is lower. The Black Hawk helicopter was on a routine training mission when it collided with the airliner.

"We also have to look at (military) missions that have flown the DC airspace," Duffy said on Wednesday. "We're going to hopefully find this out, but if they had night vision goggles on a mission like that at nine o'clock at night and not at 1 a.m. – it is unacceptable."

"We can fly training missions at a different time of night," he added.

On Thursday, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy confirmed to reporters that it appeared the helicopter pilot was wearing night vision goggles based on the cockpit voice recorder.

What we know about the NTSB's investigation into the collision

So far, investigators with the NTSB have interviewed all five people working in the control tower at the time of the collision, collected data from the black boxes recovered from the aircraft, obtained maintenance and flight logs, and have begun piecing together a timeline of the events leading up the crash, synchronizing flight data and communications.

After recovering the wreckage of the crashed plane, investigators will examine its cockpit switch positions and instrument readings, according to the NTSB. The agency said it still needs to examine the Black Hawk to verify more information about the accident, especially the helicopter's altitude at the time of the crash.

The air traffic control tower display showed the Black Hawk was flying at 300 feet at the time of the collision, the NTSB has said, though that flight track data was rounded to the nearest 100 feet and the exact altitude is still not known.

According to the latest release, it appears the helicopter exceeded the 200-foot maximum altitude assigned to the flight path it used on the night of the crash. To confirm that, investigators need to access the helicopter.

The NTSB said it expects to have a preliminary report outlining the facts and information gathered during the initial phase of the probe within 30 days of the crash. A final report detailing the cause of the crash is expected to take one to two years to complete.

Rate of near-midair collisions are higher around DCA

After last week's midair collision, the FAA announced Thursday that it is "reviewing other airports with high volumes of mixed helicopter and airplane traffic nearby."

There have been 30 near-midair collisions since 1987 around Reagan National Airport, with one-third of those incidents being military aircraft-related and seven including helicopters. While this is higher than the national rate and could cause concern among air travelers, aviation experts say the numbers don't indicate flying is unsafe.

"It’s important to keep a little bit perspective, for a lot of folks 30 aircraft sound like a lot but it’s almost over 40 years," said Philip Mann, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

NMACs, formerly called near-misses, are defined by the FAA as "an incident associated with the operation of an aircraft in which a possibility of collision occurs as a result of proximity of less than 500 feet to another aircraft," or when a pilot, crew member or even passenger reports "a collision hazard" between two or more aircraft.

Mann said this could cause "a little bit of fuzziness."

"There could still be a football-field-and-a-half distance between the two (aircraft) and they could be side-by-side," he said. "If you come a foot inside of that, you've had a near miss."

– Kathleen Wong

Read more: Rate of near-midair collisions are higher around DCA. What does that mean for travelers?

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DC plane crash: Helicopter had surveillance system switched off