Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot famed for landing a passenger jet on the Hudson River in 2009, has shared his theory about what may have contributed to Wednesday’s devastating aircraft collision in Washington DC.
The veteran pilot believes that flying at night over water could have been a crucial factor in the crash which claimed 67 lives.
Sullenberger told The New York Times that “there would have been fewer ground lights visible over the water than over land at night” – which “might have made it a little bit harder to see” other aircraft.
“Nighttime always makes things different about seeing other aircraft – basically all you can do is see the lights on them,” he said.
Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 2016 film Sully: Miracle on the Hudson
REUTERS
PICTURED: Wreckage from the doomed American Airlines flight
GETTY
“You have to try to figure out: Are they above you or below you? Or how far away? Or which direction are they headed? Everything is harder at night.”
And with the doomed flight’s black box having been recovered, he expressed hopes that the cockpit voice recorder, inflight data recorder and air traffic control data would help determine what went wrong.
“I’m just devastated by this. We have the obligation to learn from every failure and improve,” he added.
The mid-air collision occurred between an American Airlines jet from Kansas and an Army helicopter near DC’s Reagan National Airport.
LATEST ON WASHINGTON DC PLANE CRASH:
- Washington DC plane crash: Three huge factors sparking mystery of collision as officials vow ‘will not rest until we have answers’
- Washington DC residents will be ‘disappointed’ by Trump press conference, crash witness claims
- Washington DC crash: Authorities ‘still trying to figure out what happened’, Edginton claims
Sully was miraculously able to land his plane on New York City’s Hudson River
REUTERS
All 64 passengers aboard the commercial flight perished in the crash, along with three soldiers who were conducting a training mission in the helicopter.
Rescue crews made significant progress on Thursday evening, recovering two black boxes from the Potomac River wreckage.
At least 40 bodies have been recovered from the water following extensive recovery operations.
The four flight crew members’ bodies were also retrieved on Thursday, including Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, First Officer Samuel Lilley, and flight attendants Ian Epstein and Danasia Elder.
Recovery efforts are still ongoing in DC’s Potomac River
REUTERS
Meanwhile, a preliminary report has revealed that air traffic control staffing at Reagan National Airport was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic”.
The controller monitoring helicopters was simultaneously directing planes landing and departing on the runways – tasks typically handled by two separate controllers using different radio frequencies.
As of September 2023, the airport had just 19 fully certified controllers, well below the target of 30.
Recent figures showed some improvement, with 24 of 28 positions filled, representing 85 per cent staffing levels.
PICTURED: Emergency alerts flash up on screens at Ronald Reagan National Airport
REUTERS
Controllers frequently work 10-hour days, six days a week, to address ongoing staffing shortages.
In a similar incident just one day before the crash, a Republic Airways flight had to abort its landing at Reagan National when a helicopter appeared near its flight path.