10 min(s) ago
DC plane crash was ‘needless loss of life,’ aviation rules may have been ‘violated’: attorney
The Wednesday night collision of a commercial American Airlines flight and a Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., was a “needless loss of life," and aviation rules may have been violated, according to aviation attorney Bob Clifford.
Clifford is the lead counsel representing families of victims involved in a 2019 Boeing 737 Max 8 crash that killed 157 persons in Ethiopia from Chicago.
“This morning President Trump came out and talked about how preventable it was that it should never have occurred, and that's true,” Clifford told Fox News Digital. “Here in this particular airport in our nation's capital, there's an intersection and convergence all the time between civil and military aircraft. So, yes, it's surprising to some folks that a military aircraft is anywhere near a commercial airport. But that's common in D.C., especially at Reagan, because you have the forts right across the Potomac.”
He added that there are “very strict rules about how those aircraft should interact with each other," and it appears “those rules may have been violated.”
“It's obviously too soon to tell, though the finger-pointing is beginning already, when you have the CEO of American Airlines pointing this fingers at the air traffic controller and the helicopter and their communications,” Clifford said. “So there will be but there's plenty of time for all of that, but certainly this was a needless loss of life.”
Clifford noted that audio from the air traffic controller appears to show an official giving the Black Hawk directions, first asking if the pilot sees the commercial aircraft and then telling the pilot to pass behind that aircraft, but there is no response before the crash.
“That's why there's been criticism of the of this night operation for the military that maybe the military shouldn't be anywhere near Reagan Airport at night when they're dealing with the visual issues of darkness and maybe even fog or other things,” Clifford explained. “… A lot of things to look at here, but we know it was a preventable loss of life, and it should not happen in this country.”
Posted by Audrey Conklin
