Emily Steel
Appearances
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
And the reason why they spoke to us is because... They already had been ringing alarm bells inside the FAA, inside the system for years. They filed internal reports. They filed safety reports. They talked to their supervisors. And they said they just couldn't get anybody to pay attention. And that's why they talked to us.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
So the jet from Wichita is on track to land on runway one at Reagan's National Airport. And the air traffic controller asks the pilot on board if they can land on a different runway, on runway 33. Okay. instead. So inside the cockpit on the American Airlines jet, the pilots are re-navigating their landing.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
You can imagine the people on the airplane are making sure that their seat belts are fastened. They might be able to look out and see the lights of the city. They're very, very close to their landing. And it's about that time that there's an alert that blares in the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
The Army helicopter and the American Airlines jet are on a collision course. The controller asks the helicopter pilots, do you have this other jet in sight? And initially, there's no response. And then the controller again directs the helicopter to fly behind the jet and then says, do you see this other airplane? And the helicopter pilot confirms, yes, they can see another airplane.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
Right. It's absolutely terrifying. There's a huge explosion over the Potomac River, which is right next to the airport. And that jet carrying 64 people falls into this icy cold river. Right away, there's a huge response with the police, the fire department, the airport authorities. And by the next morning, the Washington, D.C.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
fire chief has confirmed everybody's worst fears and suspicions that everyone on the plane and the helicopter died. That's 67 people. This is the worst aviation crash in American history in decades.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
There is a lot that we don't know about the specific factors that led to this crash. What we know is that there will be crash investigators that will spend several months looking at flight data, listening to the recordings from inside the cockpit, looking at the weather patterns and interviewing the controllers and others just to figure out what exactly went wrong.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
But one of the first things that we know is that went drastically wrong is that the pilots of both aircrafts did not recognize that they were about to smash into each other. The pilots that were involved in the crash were both described as experienced pilots.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
But what people that we've talked to today have said is that they think that the helicopter pilot saw another airplane that wasn't the American Airlines jet that it crashed into.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
Exactly. What we also know is that the military said today that the pilots on the helicopter were wearing night goggles, which could have limited their vision. We don't know what they were seeing. We don't know if there were bright lights blaring into their eyes. We don't know if they mistook a different airplane for that American Airlines jet that they crashed into.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
Yes. And what we've just learned is that the helicopter appears to have been flying outside of its approved flight path. That matches something that the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said earlier today. He said that there had been a mistake and an elevation issue with the helicopter, and we didn't know exactly what he was referring to. This kind of matches up with that.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
The helicopter was supposed to be flying closer to the bank of the Potomac River and lower to the ground as it came into the Reagan National Airspace.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
Yes. The way that you described it is perfect. What those air traffic controllers are supposed to do is keep planes separated in the sky. They manage takeoffs and landings and they make sure that planes and helicopters and other aircraft stay in safe distances from each other.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
But what several people that we've talked to today have said that the controller during this incident should have been more proactive. They said that this guy didn't do enough. Instead of just alerting the pilot of the helicopter that there was traffic, they also could have called out to the American Airlines jet and to say, hey, there's this helicopter that's here. be on alert, be on alert.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
And instead of giving just these broad general descriptions to say, there's traffic, go behind the plane. What people that we've talked to today have said is that they should have been more specific.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
They should have said, there's another aircraft at one o'clock and given the airplane some sort of vectoring or given the pilot specific directions of where to go and what to do to actively take those airplanes apart from each other's paths.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
So as I've mentioned, we are still learning why. We're still trying to figure out exactly what happened and what went wrong. What we do know is that we got our hands on an internal FAA safety report today. And what that showed is that the staffing at this air traffic control tower was not normal for the time of day or for the volume of traffic.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
And the controller who is handling the helicopters in that airport's vicinity was also instructing the planes that were landing and departing from the airport's runways. Those jobs are typically handled by two different controllers rather than just one.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
Exactly. So as you can imagine, if you are assigned to do two jobs, your job becomes more complicated. There's more tasks to do. These controllers are monitoring the skies around the nation's capital. There's helicopters buzzing in and out. They're also managing the takeoffs and landings of these airplanes. This is an incredibly busy job. And
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
So at 618 on Wednesday night, there's an American Airlines flight that takes off from Wichita, Kansas. It's going to Washington's Reagan National Airport, and there are 64 people on board. There are American and Russian figure skaters. They are flying back from a competition. There's parents. There's coaches. There are a couple of friends who had just been coming back from a hunting trip.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
On top of that, controllers often use different radio frequencies to communicate with the pilots on airplanes and the pilots who are flying helicopters.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
And so if that controller is communicating with the pilots of the helicopter and the jet at the same time, those two sets of pilots might not be able to hear each other, which adds to another level of why they might not have been able to see or hear or not be aware of the other aircraft in the sky.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
Yes, that is a very serious problem. But what we've learned is that it should never come down to one mistake or one bad decision. What has happened on Wednesday is what pilots, air traffic controllers, and safety experts have been warning for years. They fear, and they've been very vocal, that there are growing holes in the aviation system that would inevitably lead to a deadly crash.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
Sydney and I spent a whole lot of time investigating airline safety and aviation safety in 2023. And we were able to get our hands on some internal data. And what we saw was an alarming pattern of safety lapses. There were near misses in the skies and on the runways of the United States.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
And even though there hadn't been a major crash for more than a decade, potentially dangerous incidents were happening far more frequently than anybody realized.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
The way that the safety net under U.S. aviation works is... is that there are multiple layers of protection. There are pilots, there's air traffic controllers, there's technology, there are flight paths and rules that the pilots are supposed to follow. And if one of those layers fails, has a problem, the next layer is supposed to catch it.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
So what this showed was that there was a safety system that was undermounting stress. We saw that there were mistakes by air traffic controllers that had been stretched thin by a long chronic nationwide staffing shortage. There are people who've been working overtime for years. There are people who work six days a week and 10-hour days. We saw that there were errors by pilots.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
We found that there were huge technology issues. We found controllers in some towers that were pulling up their laptops and using... website. It's called flightradar.com. And they were just using this website to kind of jerry-rig a system to do what they thought was more safe. What? Yeah. That's terrifying. It was terrifying.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
And even just the facilities in these air traffic control centers were crumbling. So what our reporting really showed is that There are layers of safety and layers of protection in aviation, and they were all really starting to erode. And it was leading to this really stressful, very charged atmosphere where people inside the industry were saying, listen, pay attention to us.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
That's a really good question. There have been various studies. Controllers supposedly have more time between shifts to sleep. But when you talk to people in the industry, what they told us today is very little, if anything has changed. And you saw some of the signs of this unfold on Wednesday night.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
This flight is scheduled to land at 9 o'clock in Washington, D.C., where it's a clear night. And about that same time, there's a Black Hawk helicopter. It's an Army helicopter. And there are two officers on board. There's a sergeant on board as well. And they are conducting flight training in the area.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
The air traffic control tower at Reagan Airport is chronically understaffed and has been for years. The data that we pulled shows that there were 19 controllers working in that tower. That's far below the target level of 30. And that's according to data from September 2023. It's the most recent data that we found available.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
What we know also is, according to this internal FAA safety report that we got our hands on today, it says the position configuration was not normal for the time of day and the volume of traffic. And it's not just a labor issue. It's not just the fact that these people have been working six days a week in 10-hour shifts for a long period of time.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
But the safety of passengers flying in airplanes is in the hands of these controllers. And so when they're tired, when they make mistakes, it can be catastrophic. Right. And I just want to say, just as an aside, the way that I actually found out about this crash was I got a message last night. It was at 9.50 p.m. from an air traffic controller that I spent a lot of time talking to in 2023.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
I've been yelling about this for years. Nobody wanted to listen to us.
The Daily
What We Know About the Plane Crash
I know. He also said, he said, I've been terrified of this exact reality for years. Here it is. Absolutely horrific. And that was the thing, Natalie. When we were doing this reporting, these air traffic controllers are not supposed to talk to reporters. It's against their rules. And you would have been shocked to know how many people violated that policy and picked up the phone and called us.