A retired Army helicopter pilot shared insights into what may have caused Wednesday’s deadly mid-air collision over the Potomac River in Washington, DC — ranging from visibility challenges to pilot error to a freak accident.
Speaking to Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” Thursday, retired Lt. Col Darin Gaub, who flew Black Hawk helicopters like the one involved in Wednesday night’s crash, said “anything is on the table” when it comes to explaining the crash that claimed 67 lives.
“Why didn’t [the pilot] turn? Why didn’t [the pilot] even slow down?” Gaub said.
“Something caused him not to see that aircraft … so I’d just like to know is there an answer to the question of why they didn’t deviate from their flight course at all — speed or altitude.”
Before the crash, the pilot acknowledged a message from air traffic control warning about a passenger plane in its flight path.
Gaub suggested the helicopter pilot might have been looking at the wrong plane and didn’t see American Airlines Flight 5342 before the collision.
The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that pilots in the doomed US Army UH-60 helicopter were using night vision goggles to help them see during the training flight.
Gaub said the goggles help pilots see in the dark, but restrict the field of vision “down to about 40 degrees” — which he said could have potentially limited “a good chunk” of visibility for the three-person crew.
“It’s a relevant point to know whether they went unaided — which is basic night flying — or under night-vision goggles,” he said.
He also pointed out that the Potomac River — from which bodies are still being recovered — serves as a natural air corridor which defines “exactly where [pilots] are supposed to fly” — helping them judge both altitude and course, Gaub said.
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“If they went too high, that’s a possibility they could have run into an aircraft that way,” he said, emphasizing that it’s just a hypothetical and we don’t yet know what happened.
He largely dismissed the notion that the chopper carrying just three crew members instead of its full capacity of four could have played a factor, noting that it’s “not unusual” in training missions for a Black Hawk to utilize a crew of three.
Another potential cause of the apparent confusion on board the helicopter could have been the bright lights emanating from the bustling metropolis below.
“When you fly in an environment that is so lit up with city lights, and you also then blend in aircraft lights, and many aircraft flying, it can actually all kind of blend together,” Gaub said.
“At certain altitudes, you can actually have a difficult time differentiating between an aircraft with its lights on and cars on the streets and streetlights,” he added, recalling an incident while piloting a chopper in Korea where he had a near miss with a 747 because he thought it was “cars on the street moving.”
Frustratingly, Gaub said due to their age, Black Hawk helicopters are not typically equipped with “black box” flight recorders like would be found in commercial aircraft, meaning ascertaining the definitive cause of the crash will be “up to external sources and witnesses to piece together.”
