According to a report, the management of commercial flights and military helicopters was combined on Wednesday night, leading up to a tragic collision.
Before the fatal crash, the responsibilities of overseeing helicopters and arriving flights at Reagan National Airport were merged, as reported. The New York Times, citing an internal preliminary FAA safety report and a source familiar with the staffing situation, revealed that an air traffic controller’s supervisor assigned the dual duties sometime before the American Airlines flight collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River.
As per the Times, the supervisor made the decision to combine the air traffic control tasks before 9:30 p.m. and also allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early. The merging of these responsibilities, which included managing both commercial and military air traffic, created a significant burden on the controller. Given the complexities of overseeing both types of aircraft, this move raised concerns about the adequacy of staffing and the ability of a single controller to effectively manage the high volume of air traffic.
Following the collision, both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched investigations into the tragic event. The investigation aims to determine the full scope of the decision to merge responsibilities and assess whether it contributed to the tragic accident. Questions have been raised about whether this staffing change put too much pressure on the air traffic controllers and compromised safety standards at a time when both commercial and military flights were operating in the same airspace.
In response to the incident, the FAA and Reagan National Airport have stated that they are reviewing internal protocols to prevent similar occurrences in the future. The airport is working to implement measures that will ensure a safer, more efficient management of air traffic, especially in high-stakes situations involving both commercial and military flights. With these changes, they aim to prevent such devastating accidents from happening again and restore public confidence in air traffic safety.
