Investigators and aviation experts worked overtime on Friday searching for clues to this week’s deadly mid-air collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter over Washington as attention focused on an increasingly stressed US aviation system, human error and concern the pilots involved may not have seen each other’s aircraft.
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Political pressure in the nation’s capital was mounting to identify what failed leading to the deadliest US air disaster in over two decades. US passenger traffic has exploded following the coronavirus pandemic without addressing the long hours, staff shortages and rising number of close calls hitting the air traffic control system, analysts said.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where the jet was due to land, has the nation’s busiest runway and is the main gateway for members of Congress, which will almost certainly add urgency to the inevitable oversight hearings and finger pointing.
The early debates for aviation experts and millions of ordinary passengers alike have centred on one question: Is it safe to fly in the US?
US investigators Friday were studying the black boxes recovered from American Eagle flight 5342 after it collided mid-air with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter.
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