The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) relied on multiple expert witnesses during its three day public hearing into the January 29, 2025 mid air collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a PSA Airlines (American Airlines Flight 5342) CRJ700 near Reagan National Airport. These expert testimonies were crucial in highlighting systemic failures across equipment, procedures, and human factors.
Long-standing concerns about military helicopters flying in crowded airspace and worries over short staffing among federal aviation workers emerged as key factors in investigators' inquiry into the fatal midair crash between an Army helicopter and a commercial airliner earlier this year.
During the second of three days of witness testimony and public inquiry by the National Transportation Safety Board into the January midair crash over the Potomac River, the board focused on air traffic control.
The NTSB heard Thursday it was common for pilots to ask to use visual separation - basically relying on their eyesight - just as the Army Black Hawk´s pilot agreed to do the night of the crash. FAA officials also said controllers relied heavily on pilots using visual separation as a way to manage the complex airspace with so many helicopters flying around Washington D.C.
Experts That Testified at the Three Day Public Inquiry
Stephen Casner – Human Factors Expert (Ex-NASA)
Stephen Casner provided critical insight into the human factors contributing to the crash. He focused on the limitations imposed by the use of night vision goggles, which he explained significantly reduce peripheral vision, obscure the colored lights of nearby aircraft, and impair situational awareness—particularly in busy or complex airspace. Casner emphasized that one of the most important aspects of safe navigation under such conditions is visual attention, stating succinctly: “Knowing where to look. That’s key.”
Rick Dressler – Metro Aviation Official, Former Army/Air Force Aviator
Rick Dressler criticized the Army’s operational procedures when flying helicopters in close proximity to Reagan National Airport. He noted that military helicopters often fly with sporadic or completely disabled locator systems, making them difficult to track by air traffic control and nearby aircraft. Dressler also pointed to a general lack of familiarity among military pilots with the complexities of civilian-controlled airspace in Washington, D.C. He warned that civilian pilots and safety professionals have long voiced concern over these deployments, citing years of unease within the aviation community.
John Cox – Retired Airline Pilot and Safety Expert
John Cox focused his testimony on the altimetry issues that played a role in the collision. He raised concerns about the Army Black Hawk helicopter flying above its assigned 200-foot altitude ceiling—exceeding it by 80 to 100 feet—due to malfunctioning barometric altimeters. Cox warned that this deviation brought the helicopter dangerously close to the path of an arriving commercial aircraft, leaving almost no margin for error in one of the country’s most congested air corridors.
Jeff Guzzetti – Former FAA/NTSB Investigator and Aviation Consultant
Jeff Guzzetti took a broader view, describing the incident as a classic case of the “Swiss cheese” model of failure. According to Guzzetti, the crash resulted from multiple overlapping breakdowns: outdated equipment, ignored safety warnings, inadequate ADS-B tracking, and poor communication between parties. He argued that while no single issue directly caused the tragedy, the alignment of these failures created the conditions for disaster.
Mary Schiavo – Former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General
Mary Schiavo offered a sobering critique of systemic oversight failures. She assigned shared responsibility to both the Army and the Federal Aviation Administration, citing their joint lack of urgency in addressing safety risks and a failure to maintain clear communication with air traffic controllers. Schiavo bluntly characterized the FAA as a “Tombstone Agency,” a term she used to describe regulatory bodies that only act after lives are lost.
The experts presented data, historical safety concerns, technical simulations, and human performance science. Their testimony reinforced that:
• The crash was not caused by one error, but a cascade of failures.
• Human factors, equipment reliability, and organizational culture all played central roles.
• Many key warnings had been raised years earlier but were never acted upon.
These insights have shaped urgent calls for reform in airspace management, FAA responsiveness, and military coordination near busy airports.
John Cox, an aviation safety expert and retired airline pilot, said the hearings are headed in the right direction to determine what happened and to prevent similar accidents.
His main concerns focus on the Black Hawk, including why it was above a 200-feet (60-meter) elevation limit. Another question is why it wasn´t closer to the east bank of the river and further away from landing airplanes.
"I´ve passed helicopters underneath me over the east bank of the Potomac a lot of times," said Cox, who flew commercial airliners for 25 years. "And there´s always been plenty of separation. It´s not a lot because the space is so constrained. But you´re dealing with professional pilots and it´s not been a problem."
Most of the FAA officials testifying Thursday agreed that the agency needs to do a better job of listening to its controllers about their concerns and ideas.
A retired airline pilot and a current aviation safety expert, John Cox, said that the recent congressional hearings are going in a positive direction. He believes they are in the process of getting to the bottom of the very unfortunate incident that took place and, in his opinion, seem to be trying to figure out exactly how and why it happened.
Cox's main concerns involve the Black Hawk helicopter's operational parameters, particularly its altitude, which he maintains significantly exceeded the prescribed elevation limit of 200 feet (60 meters). He also inquired about the copter's distance from the eastern bank of the Potomac River, questioning how close it came to landing aircraft.
"For 25 years, I flew the Boeing and Airbus families of commercial airliners. For much of that time, I watched from my cockpit as helicopters operated under my flight path along the eastern bank of the Potomac. "There has historically been good separation between our two types of aircraft. The limited airspace and helicopter performance capabilities make it necessary. And this has generally been good for all of us. "I said all of that to explain my reaction when I learned a couple of years ago, as a member of the U.S. working group that reports to the European Union, that the SAR to be used on the award-winning EC-145 helicopter was designed in such a way that it could render our so-called good separation not so good any longer.
Moreover, a consensus emerged among officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who testified on Thursday that the agency must improve its responsiveness to the concerns and recommendations of air traffic controllers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Transportation_Safety_Board
https://witnessdirectory.com/signup.php
