A report reveals that on Wednesday night, the responsibilities for managing military helicopter traffic and commercial flight arrivals were merged at Reagan National Airport just before a fatal collision occurred.
According to the New York Times, citing an informed source and an initial FAA safety report, a supervisor assigned one air traffic controller to oversee both helicopter and airplane traffic prior to an incident where an American Airlines flight collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River.
Typically, the management of helicopter traffic and airplane arrivals is kept separate from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the airport, with duties potentially combined later in the evening when traffic diminishes.
However, on Wednesday, an air traffic control supervisor made the decision to merge these responsibilities before the usual cutoff time of 9:30 p.m., which led to one air traffic controller being allowed to leave their post early.
The initial FAA safety report indicated that the staffing levels at the airport were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” as reported by the Associated Press.
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