FAA report says staffing in control tower was ‘not normal’ at time of deadly air collision near DC
Updated: 4:26 PM EST Jan 30, 2025
Thank you for joining us. My name is Jennifer Hammandy, and I’m the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board. The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency that’s charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation and serious accident and serious incident in the United States and significant events in other modes of transportation. I want to start by expressing our deepest condolences, our sympathies on behalf of the entire board for those who lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy our thoughts, our prayers are with you entire communities were affected and we are thinking of you. With me today is Bryce Banning. Bryce is *** senior aircraft accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. He’s also going to serve as our investigator in charge of this investigation. Also with me today is the entire board. We have Todd Inman, member Todd Inman. Todd is going to serve as the board member on scene, uh, the spokesperson for this investigation. All of the board members will be here. We have Vice Chairman Alvin Brown, Member Mike Graham, who lived in Wichita for 20 years, uh, and we also have member Tom Chapman. The NTSB’s headquarters is just 1 mile from here. And so we are all here because this is an all hands on deck event. And we’re here to assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation we are gonna conduct *** thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts now with that I want *** level set. When we go to the scene and we were here last night, we allow the responders to do their important safety mission which in this case was search and rescue and recovery we stand back to allow them to do their important safety mission. And so this for us is our first full day on scene with our entire crew coming together we have about nearly 50 people on scene and in addition to uh our resources back at headquarters in our labs and throughout the agency. So with that said we are not going to get into specific facts in this press conference. I want to level set here we’re going to get into our investigative process as we are able to confirm factual information, we will provide that. I do want to say this is *** whole of government effort. I was able to brief along with others, the President of the United States and the vice president, uh, this afternoon. I want to thank them for their leadership, for their tremendous support of the NTSB for our investigators and for the responders that are on scene doing an important mission. I also wanna thank Secretary Sean Duffy, who I was communi communicating with early on after we first got word of this tragedy. We’ve been working together throughout the day, uh, along with his team at the DOT and within FAA. I also wanna thank Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also uh integral in working with us today, uh, Chris Rochelo, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, we’ve heard from many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and so I will say this is *** tremendous one more time, whole of government. Uh, effort I also want to take *** moment and thank the many, many responders that have been on scene. Uh, it has been an incredible effort, uh, and I, I will have *** full list that I will provide, uh, that we will provide tomorrow, uh, but I do want to thank them for all their work. With that I’m going to turn it over, uh, to member Inman for additional remarks. So today is our first World day on scene. Our investigative team will be on scene as long as it takes in order to obtain all of the perishable evidence and all the fact-finding that is needed to bring us to *** conclusion of probable cause. Our mission is to understand not just what happened but why it happened. And to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again. Since we’re just beginning our investigation, we don’t have *** great deal of information to share right now. We will keep you informed by getting regular updates as we learn more. Our intention is to have *** preliminary report within 30 days, and the final report will be issued once we’ve completed all of our fact finding and investigation. Now we will not be determining the probable cause of the accident while we are here on scene, nor will we speculate about what may have caused this accident. Today we will be going and having an organizational meeting and establishing our parties to our investigation. We currently have the following parties. That are already identified PSA Airlines, GE Aerospace. Sikorski FAA NAFTA, which represents the air traffic controllers, APA, which represents the pilots, Army, AFA, which represents the flight attendants, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will be an accredited representative under Annex 13 of AAO. They will be supplemented by MHIRG as *** technical advisor. They were previously known as Bombardier. sorry. The NTSB offers this party status to those companies, government agencies, and associations that have employees, activities or equipment involved in the accident. We offer that because they will provide technical expertise and relevant information supporting the development of the best possible factual record. Once they join this investigation, they are not permitted to release documents or talk publicly about the investigation without the consent of the NTSB. So I want to stress this, it is only the NTSB that will provide information related to this investigation, with one exception regarding the fatalities that occurred, that notification will be handled by the DC medical examiner. We will not be discussing fatalities or names that will be handled by them as the proper authority. So we want to talk *** little bit about our process. We will analyze the facts and determine the probable cause of the accident and then issue *** report of those determinations. I also want to talk *** little bit about some additional people that are here with us and they’re very important to us and that is our family assistance group. Later today we will be briefing the families. We normally try to do this before *** media event, but in this case they’re still arriving. Our family assistance specialists are already working closely with local officials and others to help assist them in their efforts to support everyone that’s affected by this accident. And let me just reiterate what the chair said. *** loss of life in an aviation accident is very unusual in the United States. And our heartfelt sorrow goes out to everyone that’s affected. It affects us. It affects everyone around us. There are *** lot of people hurting today. We will help find out what happened. We will do it factually, and we will do it accurately. As part of this, we are going to be standing up some specific working groups. Those working groups will be operations. They will be looking at the history of the accident flight crew members duties for as many days before the crash as appears relevant. We’ll be forming *** structures group, which will be the documentation of the airframe wreckage and the accident scene, including calculation of the impact angles to help determine the plane’s pre-impact course and altitude. We’ll have *** power plants group. They will do the examination of the engines and the engine accessories. We’ll have *** systems group. They will study the components of the plane’s hydraulic, electrical, pneumatic, and associated systems. Together with the instruments and elements of the flight control system. We’ll have an air traffic control group. They will do reconstruction and review of air traffic control systems provided to and including acquisition of pertinent flight track surveillance information, which you might typically think of as radar or ADSB, along with controller pilot communications. We will also have *** survival factors group. They will be doing the documentation of impact, forces and injuries, community emergency planning, and all crash and fire rescue efforts. Also, due to the nature of this crash, we will be having *** helicopter group as well. Lastly, we will have *** human performance group and this will not be its own group. It will actually be *** part of the operations, air traffic control, and helicopter groups. They will study the crew performance and all before the accident factors that might be involved in human error, including fatigue, medication, medical histories, training, workload, equipment design, and work environment. Now we’re going to take *** few questions, but I will again stress. We don’t have *** lot of information now. We will continue to gather that. We will try to release it as we can. But we will only talk about the facts of the case that we know right now. So I’m gonna ask, we’ll call *** few people. I’m gonna ask that you state your name and affiliation. Matthews from Sky News. So we’ve heard from President Trump today talking about EEI hiring policies within the FAA and associating that with the call. Well, unfortunately I didn’t hear the remarks. I was briefing House and Senate members, but I believe, chair, would you like to take as part of any investigation we look at the human, the machine, and the environment. So we will look at all the humans. That were involved in this accident again we will look at the aircraft we will look at the helicopter we will look at the environment in which they were operating in that is part of that is standard in any part of our investigation. I’ll turn it back and what is the difficulty in *** disaster like this which presents *** very difficult environment for your investigators and the people out of the water. Well, the question was on, uh, the flight data recorders, and, uh, we have not recovered the flight data recorders yet. We know they’re there uh they are underwater. This is not unusual for the NTSB. We have many times recovered uh flight data recorders in water. We have our. Lab right here that it’s about 1 mile from the NTSB so it’s not unusual and uh once we get those we’ll be able to uh uh get those read and information from them uh to be able to uh provide further information to you. I’m, I’m gonna turn it back over to. with CBS News earlier today, Defense Secretary Pete said *** mistake was made last night. Based off of you all’s initial investigations and preliminary findings, have you all been able to tell whether this was human error or mechanical failure? The question was, has there been human error or mechanical failure? We don’t. Know what we know just yet. We do not know enough facts to be able to rule in or out human factor, mechanical factors that is part of the NTSB investigative process where all of these groups will come together. It’s one of the reasons why the NTSB is known as the gold standard. We will take the time that’s necessary, but I’d also like to reiterate, if we find something that is *** significant issue that warrants immediate action, we will not hesitate to make those recommendations and make them public. We have *** good track record on that and we want to continue doing so, sir. Sir Tom Costello with NBC News. Does it hurt your investigative process, maybe for the chairman? Does it hurt your investigative process to have the president already suggesting possible causes here as you try to keep an open mind and begin this investigation? Picture. Tom, with all due respect, I think the press also likes to state what probable cause is before we get to the probable cause. So what I’m going to say is you need to give us time. You need to give NTS it’s not that we don’t have information. We do have information we have data we have substantial amounts of information we need to verify information. Uh, we need to take our time to make sure it is accurate, that’s best for you, that’s uh important for the families. It’s important for legislators who are seeking answers to try to figure out what they’re going to do about this, and so it will take time. We do have *** lot of information, but we need some time to verify that. The Yeah, Member Chase Williams of Fox Business, I’m wondering about the conditions in the tower last night. Were there any performance issues in the past with any of these controllers, uh, anything of that. Question is about controllers. As I said, we’re just now forming the groups. Uh, the controllers do have union representation which they’re entitled to. They’ll be working with our party system and our party groups. They’ll be conducting interviews. Those interviews will need to be analyzed, transcribed, and other team members will need to look over it. It’ll be *** long process, but we will go through the entire history. independent The care About Uh, sure, so, uh, the question was about my briefing for the president and the vice president, uh, as *** standard, we offer briefings, uh, on our process and what we know, and this was *** briefing, uh, with the president and vice president. And with Secretary Duffy and Secretary Hegseth and uh also the uh acting administrator of the FAA there was *** discussion on uh what we know so far and our process uh and uh that was about it. Madam Chair, well, this Stephanie Ros with ABC News, um, similar to Tomel’s question, the president has stated what may have caused the crash, uh, stating common sense. Does that affect your progress at all at this early stage? Yeah, so the NTSB, we, we are, we conduct an *** an important safety mission where we take *** Uh, very careful approach, uh, I’m sorry, the, the question was on speculating, uh, during, uh, investigations, uh, which is, um, we often hear about, uh, what I will say is we look at facts uh on our investigation and that will take some time and at some point we’ll be able to provide that factual information as member Inman said and uh and provide that hopefully tomorrow. OK. Hang on, Dave Shepherdson from Reuters. Have you been able to retrieve the black boxes from the helicopter as the military decide whether they’re going to read those or the NTSB and what about the ATC tapes have you guys been? So the question was about black boxes which are referred to as black boxes which typically orange uh we have not recovered any of the boxes involved yet we feel comfortable and confident that we will be able to right now recovery of. Life is probably the most important and those that were involved. I mean there are still ongoing recovery efforts involving the fatalities involved along with some debris is coming out as well. Uh, we will make sure that that perishable evidence is maintained. We have *** great process for that. Uh, we will probably have more than one, black box, so to speak. It’s our understanding that the Sikorsky helicopter is equipped with some form of recording devices, and those will be read either by the DOD or by us. We have *** good starting relationship with them and we’ve already made agreements in order to be able to do that. So I, I feel comfortable in what we’re gonna be doing. The other question was about air traffic control. We received *** very large package of information from the FAA at about 3 a.m. I believe this morning. That is still being reviewed and analyzed. I, I would say there’s *** lot more information that usually comes in that than what you might find online and people might speculate about, and that is part of that overall process where we take the time to get the information correct and to make sure all the parties are engaged and involved and can fact check that information. Gabe Cohen from CNN, uh, can you tell me if the NTSB has reviewed this FAA internal report that has been cited by the New York Times indicating that the controller that was on duty at the time of the crash was doing *** job that’s usually done by two people? Uh, we have not reviewed any specific reports about the controllers at this time, at least from the leadership team. Our investigators are continuing to pull all that information, their personnel records, their files, where they were at, whether they were fatigued, all that information will be part of that investigative process, but right now we can’t speculate on anything that may have been reported in the media until we get the opportunity to validate and understand how it impacts the investigation. We’re gonna take just *** few more questions, sir. Yes, uh, Orange Time magazine. Um Like they’re bringing the family are they coming to the airport? Um how are you? In the in the uh. We So the question is about the uh the families, and many of those families are still en route, some are still being notified from both the military and from the commercial crash. There is *** family assistance facility that’s being stood up by American and PSA Airlines in Bethesda, Maryland. They’ve already been working on that standing it up. Our team from our disaster assistance team has also been coordinating with them. We plan on briefing them. It is customary that at some point if the families wish to go to part of the accident site that we would arrange such *** thing, but it will only be when we know that it’s safe. We have the correct perishable evidence and we can do it in the proper modesty that should be for those family members. It will be *** little bit of *** process, but it will take some time. No, sir, how are you? I know Yeah Come down the slides that we made it. Uh, well, again, we will not speak to the fatalities. The DC medical examiner will, but I think. The DC fire chief this morning very succinctly said correctly that we believe there are no survivors. So hang on one second. Um, right now we’re going through the debris fields. Nothing we’ve seen would indicate that maybe slides or shoots were deployed. It was *** very quick rapid impact, but we’ve seen nothing in that regard so far from the evidence we have, but we still need to verify all of that information. One more question Jeff, ABC News. Go ahead, Jeff Cook, ABC News. What do you know about the altitude of the helicopter at the moment of impact, and can you talk about the procedures for such helicopters in that area? Uh, the question is about the helicopter procedures and, and in DC it’s kind of *** unique environment. Uh, we’ve been getting briefed more and more by the FAA. I’m not an air traffic control specialist. But they’re actually helicopter zones if you will, or tracks, and this one was transiting I believe from track 1 to 4 as part of their normal procedure. If you live in DC, you see *** lot of helicopters going down into this area, so there’s *** very well defined system in that regard. As far as altitude, until we get the additional information, we can’t validate or basically corroborate any of that until we get more of the electronic data and the data that’s on the plane. I do want to clarify one question. That also came about cell phones. You know today’s age and time, *** lot of electronics and other devices do contain *** lot of different information we’ve found on *** number of our accidents that we actually are notified through *** smartphone that made sense that as part of our process, we will obviously treat all of the effects of the deceased with dignity. We are already starting to pull that information together. If we feel that it’s necessary to find or pull some of that information, we will work with the families and make sure we do it in *** manner that’s respectful for them and their privacy. But right now we don’t have any plans specifically on that amount on that area until we need to. Thank you very much.
FAA report says staffing in control tower was ‘not normal’ at time of deadly air collision near DC
Updated: 4:26 PM EST Jan 30, 2025
Staffing in the air traffic control tower was “not normal” at time of the midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration.”The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” according to the report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.One air traffic controller was doing work normally assigned to two people in the tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport when the collision happened, the report said.The cause of the collision has not yet been determined.All 67 people aboard the two aircrafts were killed, officials said.At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday while it was landing at the airport near Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter. Video below: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: ‘We will get to the bottom of this investigation as quickly as possible’
ARLINGTON, Va. —Staffing in the air traffic control tower was “not normal” at time of the midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” according to the report obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
One air traffic controller was doing work normally assigned to two people in the tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport when the collision happened, the report said.
The cause of the collision has not yet been determined.
All 67 people aboard the two aircrafts were killed, officials said.
At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday while it was landing at the airport near Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
Video below: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: ‘We will get to the bottom of this investigation as quickly as possible’
