Washington: It’s just over 12 hours since the US witnessed one of its worst air disasters in several decades as a passenger plane collided midair with an Army helicopter before both crashed in to Potomac river on Wednesday night (Washington time).
Already, questions are being asked over how such a rare collision took place.
US President Donald Trump was among the first to raise queries on the manner of the disaster near Ronald Reagan National Airport.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump expressed amazement over the tactics of the military helicopter and air traffic controllers, both agencies which report to the President.
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time,” Trump wrote.
“It is a clear night, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. Not good!!!” was Trump’s blunt observation.
The US Secretary of Transport Sean Duffy echoed President Trump’s sentiment, asserting that the collision should have been prevented.
“We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Duffy said.
Duffy further said that the Black Hawk army helicopter was “aware” that another aircraft was close by. “The helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area,” he said.
The Army copter was classified as a training mission, but that doesn’t mean these were ‘inexperienced pilots’.
“We call these missions that are flown in the DC area as our pilots are getting hours and experience training missions,” Duffy said.
Ice skating world champions on ill-fated plane
Russia-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the ill-fated American Airlines plane that crashed into Potomac river, the Kremlin and state media said.
Married couple Shishkova and Naumov won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994. They lived in the US since 1998, and trained young ice skaters.
