DC plane crash raises questions about strained resources, military use of air spaces
On Wednesday, the air collision on a civilian plane and a military helicopter at Reagan National Airport did not leave any survivors and did not wonder whether the tense resources at the airport can deal with all the demands.
There is no doubt that the safety of airlines has been steadily improved all over the world. But in places, air traffic, new threats, and aging infrastructure made safety systems more complicated.
With the most crowded nation’s runway, Reagan Airport in Washington qualifies as one of these complex air positions. Because of its proximity to the White House, the Pentagon, and the rest of Washington, it may also be the most controlled in the world, as all civil and military aircraft and helicopters work.
Why did we write this
Safety height is the historical trend of flying. But is this change in the United States? Wednesday’s accident comes amid what some see as increasing pressure on air safety systems.
On Wednesday night, an American Airlines Psa regional airline, Kansas, on the final approach to Rigan, with a army helicopter was in a training exercise. None of 64 passengers and crew on the American trip or from the three crew members on the helicopter have been believed. Among the victims were 14 American skiers and two Russian skiers, Evgenia Shishkova and Fadim Numov, 1994 world champions.
Early news reports indicate that air traffic monitors have asked the helicopter to maintain secession from the plane shortly before the accident.
The National Council for Transportation is investigating the accident. At a press conference on Thursday, NTSB officials refused to predict the case of the accident, but that did not prevent others from doing so.
In comments from the White House, President Donald Trump said the helicopter “is clearly in the wrong place.” He also blamed the policies of diversity, fairness and insertion of the presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. In a document Issued last weekThe White House has claimed that the Dei concentration puts the diversity of efficiency in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees the monitoring of air traffic.
Local and federal officials at the scene of the accident hit a different tone at a separate press conference at Reagan National Airport on Thursday. They praised the quick response and coordination between rescue employees throughout the city and the state and the cooperation of the federal and state authorities.
“In most partisan places, I am really grateful because Democrats and Republicans, from all over the world, said to try to ensure people’s service,” said American actor Don Bayer, a Democrat from Virginia.
Long -term improvement in the safety of airlines is clear. For every million commercial flights, less than 12 times occur in the 1970s. Before Wednesday, the last fatal flight occurred in the United States 16 years ago when the Coultons flight linked to continental airlines fell near Buffalo.
However, aviation safety was stopped last year. In August, a passenger journey in Brazil was destroyed about 50 miles from Sao Paulo. In December, Azerbaijan Airlines crashed in Kazakhstan. A few days later, July Air was collided in South Korea.
These incidents, which represent 318 Lost’s life, made 2024 the bloodiest commercial flying in six years.
“It is a worrying trend,” said Ed Pearson, CEO of the Safety of Aviation Corporation, the non -profit organization that is based in Washington. “People will say statistically that it is safe to fly, but the fact is that it can always become safer.”
One of the causes of anxiety is that a relatively new threat has appeared: missiles near the areas of conflict.
A preliminary investigation in December’s crash in Kazakhstan decided that a Russian missile from the surface to the air had shot down the plane during the efforts to repel the Ukrainian drone. This represents the third attack like this during a decade, which represents more than 500 deaths ever, according to Wall Street Journal.
Another challenge is closer to the home, which is a lack of air traffic control units in the United States and Canada. Even before the epidemic, when the officials initially demobilized the employees and trained to the new control units, the US air traffic system was No less than workers. A year ago, FAA had 10 % of control units in 2012.
At the same time, controllers were forced to deal with the increasing complexity with air traffic growth. This is especially true in old airports, such as Reagan. It is originally designed to deal with 15 million passengers annually, and it is now routinely treating more than 23 million passengers.
“It is a complex air field, and it is an air field where there is no margin of error,” said Hassan Shahidi, head of the Salama Aviation Corporation, a non -profit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, and is pushing to promote aviation safety.
Despite these concerns, Congress approved last year, and Biden President signed a bill at the time to add more direct flights at Reagan Airport, despite safety experts and even some Senators refer to the proximity of sanctuaries and other warning signs of potential risks. Live flights to and from Whitchita, including flights this week, began a year before this month, before the signing of this legislation.
Added traffic extends the safety system more. “The entire system relies heavily on humans in the system that absorbs the gaps in design,” says Captain Shim Malikuist, an active pilot and member of the Salama Aviation Corporation, who deeply participated in aircraft accident investigations. “We must design the system, so it does not depend on humans to keep a mistake.”
According to FAA, the human error is the main cause of airline accidents. But this error is often a sign of deeper system defects, says airlines pilots.
“You can not wake up every morning and say,” well, today, I will be alert every minute of the day, “says Philip Greensbone, a coach accredited by FAA and the former Air Delta pilot.
Ketlin Babkok mentioned from Washington, Laurent Pliery from and Tahm, Massachusetts.
