- The US Army Black Hawk that collided with an American Airlines flight was training on a familiar flight path.
- The 12th Aviation Battalion frequently navigates Washington DC airspace for VIP transport.
- Pilots were flying with night vision goggles and are trained to deal with those challenges.
The US Army crew of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that fatally collided with an American Airlines passenger jet on Wednesday was on a routine training flight on a well-known flight path at the time of the incident, an Army official said Thursday.
Jonathan Koziol, a retired Army chief warrant officer aviator with nearly three decades of military flight experience, said during a media roundtable this flight would have likely been deemed “low risk,” not medium or high risk.
Such designations are required elements of pre-flight risk assessments and briefings to military mission approval authorities and take into account variables like weather, mission type, and potential hazards. Koziol, the Headquarters Department of the Army Aviation Directorate Chief of Staff, was not involved in flight operation or oversight.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier in the day that the flight was “routine” and conducted along a “standard” corridor. The flight was along Route 4, a commonly used flight path, and “should not have been a problem,” Koziol said.
Crews from the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion, based in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, are well acquainted with Washington, DC and the surrounding areas, said Koziol. Much of this unit’s mission includes ferrying government and military VIPs throughout the National Capital Region (NCR) and being ready to move officials during crises.
Speaking of the Black Hawk’s flight path, Koziol said “this is a relatively easy corridor to fly because you’re flying down the center of the river.”
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
He said that the dark river flight path, with urban lights on either side to act as informal guardrails, makes the task simple for pilots. The battalion’s Black Hawk was also equipped with an in-flight map, meaning the pilots could track their position throughout the flight.
“You have the darkness of the river, and you have the lights on either side of you and obviously the rotating beacon on Reagan National to point out the airfield and all the traffic on it for them to know exactly where they’re at,” he said.
There are several routes for helicopters in the NCR which government aircraft traverse daily and includes airspace that is off-limits to non-approved aircraft, including areas near the Pentagon, White House, National Mall, and Naval Observatory.
Each flight requires coordination with surrounding air traffic control, including the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which assigns each flight a four-digit tracking number to chart its movements. Within the aviation unit, flights are meticulously planned for and managed, Koziol said.
Koziol said the Black Hawk pilots were training with night vision goggles, which can cut down a wearer’s peripheral vision and impact depth perception. Soldiers train regularly with these capabilities to limit the impact.
“They are helpful at night, obviously, and in an urban environment, they’re still useful,” Koziol said. City lights can make seeing with night vision more difficult, but flying over the river where the Black Hawk was shouldn’t have posed any problems with light, he said.
All three crew members, two pilots and a crew chief, were experienced aviators, he said. Both pilots had at least 1500 combined flight hours between them. One pilot served as the flight commander and instructor, overseeing an annual training requirement for the second pilot, who held 500 hours and had previously served as a flight commander.
The cause of Wednesday’s deadly crash, in which there were no survivors, is unknown and under investigation.
