U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, the chair of a Senate subcommittee on aviation safety, said it鈥檚 too soon to speculate what went wrong in the Washington, D.C. plane and helicopter .
The former Army helicopter pilot said she鈥檒l wait to read reports from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Safety Transportation Board before reaching any conclusions about the crash at Reagan National Airport.
鈥淣ow is not the time for speculation,鈥� Duckworth said on a call with reporters on Thursday. 鈥淲e need to get to the facts.鈥�
The second-term Democratic senator was on another call with both federal agencies investigating Thursday morning. She asked for the air-traffic control conversations and what kind of collision avoidance equipment the Black Hawk helicopter had.
The federal investigation may include two things, Duckworth said.
鈥淒id one of the aircraft stray away, latitude, sideways in the airspace from the route that they were supposed to be on?鈥� she said. 鈥淲as the Black Hawk higher than the 200 feet hard deck?鈥�
The airplane coming from Wichita, Kansas, had been cleared to land. The helicopter had been instructed to pass behind it, Duckworth said.
control tower was 鈥渘ot normal鈥� when the plane and helicopter collided, according to an FAA report obtained by the Associated Press.
Even after a hiring surge last year, there still to satisfy staffing plans drawn up by the FAA and the union that represents controllers. A series of near collisions, when two planes nearly hit, had also grabbed the .
To prevent future crashes, Duckworth said lawmakers could consider legislation to make the busy airspace above the nation鈥檚 capital as safe as possible.
鈥淲hat we will probably end up looking at as lawmakers is to see if there is an issue in terms of necessary equipment,鈥� Duckworth said. 鈥淲hatever upgrades we need to continue to provide to do with the air traffic control system and making sure that, in particular, air traffic controllers鈥e have enough of them. That they have鈥verything that they need to do their jobs.鈥�
