Home » Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, half-mile off predetermined route when it crashed with American Airlines flight mid-air: report

Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, half-mile off predetermined route when it crashed with American Airlines flight mid-air: report

“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”

“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”

The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines flight on Wednesday night, resulting in a fireball over the Potomac River just outside of Washington, DC’s Reagan National Airport, was reportedly flying outside its approved flight path and too high.
Four people briefed on the matter told the New York Times that the helicopter was supposed to be flying lower to the ground and in a different location as it flew around the busy airport. The helicopter pilot had asked the air traffic controller for permission to use Route 4 at Reagan, a specific, predetermined route on the Potomac that lets helicopters fly no higher than 200 feet and hugs the east side of the river. The route would have let the helicopter avoid the flight.