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What the Black Hawk pilots could see, just before the crash
A 3-D model created by The Times visualizes the helicopter pilots’ field of view minutes before a fatal crash with a jet in Washington.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said that the Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines passenger jet, Flight 5342, were at 300 feet above the Potomac when they collided, killing 67 people. The Times analysis also indicates that the pilots’ view of the ground and river below would not have drastically changed to offer a visual cue that their helicopter had temporarily drifted into an unsafe path, above the authorized altitude in this area. At 8:46 p.m., two minutes before the collision, an air traffic controller tracking both the Black Hawk and the incoming jet told the helicopter’s aircrew that American Airlines Flight 5342 was south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge spanning the Potomac and that it was cleared to land on Runway 33 at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
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