Details about the actions of the crew of the Black Hawk that crashed in the U.S. have become known

The crew of the Black Hawk military helicopter may not have heard the dispatcher's instructions before the collision with a passenger plane in Washington. This was reported on February 14 by CBS TV channel with reference to the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States Jennifer Homendy.

She said that the air traffic controller at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport 17 seconds before the collision instructed the helicopter crew to fly behind the airplane. A recording from the cockpit of the military aircraft indicates that its crew appears to have missed that instruction. The fact is that right at the moment the dispatcher's message was received in the helicopter, the microphone key was pressed, which was in the on state for 0.8 seconds.

In addition, the collision, tentatively, occurred at an altitude of about 325 feet (just over 99 m), which means that the helicopter exceeded the 200 feet (about 61 m) flight altitude allowed for that area. Significantly, different members of the Black Hawk crew gave different altitude figures in the minutes before the crash. For example, the pilot said they were flying at 300 feet (about 91.5 m), while the instructor pilot said they were flying at 400 feet (almost 122 m). Investigators believe some of this data is erroneous, but have not yet determined which ones.

It has been clarified that the helicopter crew was experienced, but had been tested on the use of night vision goggles during that flight and likely spent the entire flight wearing them. Homendy emphasized that many questions about the crash have yet to be answered.

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How opposing American parties can benefit from the tragedy

On the night of January 30, an American Airlines passenger jet and a Black Hawk military helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. After the crash, they fell into the Potomac River. On board the civilian aircraft were 60 passengers and four crew members, in the helicopter - three military. US President Donald Trump said that no one survived the plane crash in Washington.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there were Russian citizens in the plane that crashed in Washington. He said the United States and Russia had been in contact through diplomatic channels after the crash. The Russian Embassy in Washington said that the US State Department confirmed the data on the Russians Yevgeniya Shishkova, Vadim Naumov and Inna Volyanskaya who died in the plane crash.