Missteps, Tech Issues Led to Fatal DC Air Crash

A New York Times investigation found that the fatal January mid-air collision over Washington, D.C., which killed all 67 people aboard a military Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet, was caused by a series of miscommunications and procedural failures. Captain Rebecca Lobach, piloting the Black Hawk during a training mission, failed to follow her instructor's command to turn left moments before the crash. Overlapping radio transmissions caused the crew to miss critical air traffic control instructions, and the controller's warnings were insufficiently urgent. The Black Hawk's tracking technology was turned off, as is standard during training missions, which further hindered situational awareness. The incident has led to national scrutiny and calls to modernize air traffic control systems, including the adoption of new technologies and AI. Investigators emphasized that the crash resulted from a chain of errors rather than a single failure.