Investigation into deadly midair collision focuses on helicopter flight

It would just be a bright mass of light, and it would be very distracting, and it would be very dangerous to fly in that with the night-vision goggles in that area,

Loranger said

There’s a lot of experts out there, but until we get the data from the black boxes, that’s the only truth, and we won’t know that for a little bit,

said Jonathan Koziol, a senior Army aviation adviser who’s helping with the investigation

They have to be familiar with all the routes around the capital,

Koziol said

There are appropriate times to take risk, and there are inappropriate times to take risk,

Driscoll said

Flying aircraft, it’s not like riding a bicycle,

said Loranger, who has represented family members of service members killed in military aircraft crashes

That mission requires helicopters to fly that route,

he said

Based on the data we’re able to see, I think that’s a fair assessment,

said Ian Petchenik, spokesperson for FlightRadar24, a flight tracking company

This is an extremely complex job that we do day in and day out with weather changes, with flow changes, and with airspace changes each and every day, ... so, it’s not uncommon for positions to be combined or not combined at all.”

National Air Traffic Controllers Association president Nick Daniels told CNN’s Erin Burnett

Obviously, ultimately the aircraft has to pass through this 200-foot altitude in order to land,

former commercial pilot Jeff Huddleston said

ADS-B is worlds beyond the standard Mode S data. Mode S data allows you to have just a few bits of information,

Petchenik told CNN

We do see other lights in the area, particularly one bright light from another aircraft, when the air traffic control tower asked the helicopter, ‘Do you have the plane in sight?’

Schiavo told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Friday

The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit,

Trump said in a Truth Social post Friday

I flew out of (Chicago) Midway Airport for over a dozen years where I did routinely fly underneath commercial airliners landing there at Midway Airport,

said Duckworth

PAT 2-5 has aircraft in sight, request visual separation.”

Additional air traffic control audio shortly before the collision captures the helicopter pilot saying

Someone was at the wrong altitude,

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Friday morning

I asked them to provide me with some more information – which they will – including the transcripts of the air traffic control instructions back to the pilots,

she told CNN

That’s a very tight, no-margin-for-error airspace arrangement and demands that everybody in that spot be completely on their toes and fly to complete perfection,

he said

What I've heard from the audio is that they called out to [air traffic control]. The helicopter said that he had the aircraft in sight,

the attorney said

The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,

the report said

Having flown at night, having tried to look and see traffic, I think most people would say, ‘Oh, how hard is it to miss an airliner,’ right? You should be able to see that. But it's a lot more difficult than people would expect,

he said