WASHINGTON — The three days of National Transportation Safety Board hearings about the mid-air crash that killed 67 in Washington, D.C., continued for the second day on Thursday.
The NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for not being able to prevent the American Airlines Flight 5342 and the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter from colliding on Jan. 29.
“Why did it take 67 lives to be lost and families who are just destroyed forever to understand what was occurring,” Homendy said.
The testimony has focused on operations at the Ronald Reagan National Airport, or DCA, amid a shortage of air traffic controllers.
Brian Soper, NTSB investigator, asked if a “make it work mentality has been normalized at DCA airport.” Clark Allen, the national airport operations manager, answered in the affirmative.
Air traffic controllers wanted to change helicopter routes. Homendy reacted to FAA Aeronautical Information Services leader Katie Murphy’s testimony about the many steps needed to add “hot spots” alerting about the risks.
“You transferred people out instead of taking ownership over the fact that everybody in FAA, in the tower, was saying there was a problem,” Homendy said. “Are you kidding me? 67 people are dead. How do you explain that? Fix it! Do better!”
Nick Fuller, the FAA’s acting deputy chief, and James Jarvis, an FAA air traffic quality control specialist, testified during the NTSB hearing on Thursday.
“I brought that to many, many [supervisors’] attention every opportunity I had, and at one point I was told to quit bringing it up,” Jarvis said about the lack of staffing.
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