IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – “So because of its proximity to DC and to the White House and whatnot, there’s something called a special flight rules area. So within a 30-mile radius of that area, up to 18,000 feet, you cannot fly in there unless you have specific DC training and go in and out through very specific routes,” said Senior Flight Instructor Nathan Hamberg.
Local News 8’s Chris Nestman asked “Does that make it easier or harder to have like a collision?”
“It should be harder. But the problem is the amount of traffic going in there is more than the capabilities of those controllers and the equipment that they have that can handle,” said Nathan. “It was originally rated that they are supposed to be able to handle up to 25 million passengers a year, and they usually end up getting around 41 million passengers a year.”
Despite the air traffic control limitations, Hamberg says that this crash had more to do with other factors.
Flying at night can change the way pilots perceive their surroundings.
“This Black Hawk was around and it was near CRJ [American Airlines “CRJ” 700] and they had requested what we call visual separation. So they had sight of the aircraft, presumably, and requested visual separation, meaning they will maneuver themselves around the aircraft, the CRJ was doing exactly what they were supposed to do, which was an approach to the runway,” said Nathan. “And the Blackhawk was very close, very low to that aircraft and had assumed responsibility by saying, well, maintain visual separation. It’s an unfortunate incident.”
The collision is the deadliest aviation disaster in the US since November 12th, 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed in New York killing all 260 people on board.
