Five air traffic controllers who were working on the night of the fatal collision between a plane and helicopter over Washington DC have been questioned on their role in the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is continuing to probe Wednesday night’s tragedy after first responders finally pulled all 67 bodies from the Potomac River.
The five employees who were working in the control tower at Reagan National Airport on the night of the collision have been interviewed by the NTSB in an effort to piece together what went wrong.
Investigators are developing a detailed timeline of the crash and compiling flight data and communications between the air traffic controllers and the jet and helicopter.
Two employees at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority have been arrested over leaked video of the tragedy.
The plane, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, was approaching the runway when it was hit by a Black Hawk Army helicopter conducting a training flight.
Footage of the extraordinary incident quickly went viral, sparking frenzied conspiracy theories online.
That video was leaked to CNN by two members of staff at the airport, authorities now say, according to ABC.
The duo have been charged with computer trespass for allegedly making the unauthorized copy from Airports Authority records.
Mohamed Lamine Mbengue, 21, of Rockville, Maryland, was arrested on January 31 over the breach. He was booked into Arlington County Adult Detention Center but later released.
Then on Sunday, 45-year-old Jonathan Savoy, from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was arrested for the same incident. He was released on a summons by a magistrate.
The NTSB revealed that preliminary data showed conflicting readings about their altitudes at the time of the catastrophic collision.
Data from the passenger jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet, when the crash happened Wednesday night. Data in the control tower, though, showed the Black Hawk helicopter at 200 feet at the time.
The 100-foot discrepancy is yet to be explained, but if the impact did occur at 325ft, the crash would have occurred well-above the maximum allowed altitude of 200ft for helicopters in the area.
Investigators hope to reconcile the altitude differences with data from the helicopter’s black box, which is taking more time to retrieve because it became waterlogged after it plunged into the Potomac River. They also said they plan to refine the tower data, which can be less reliable.
While the remains of all 67 victims – 64 from the plane and three soldiers who were on the helicopter – have now been pulled from the river, the chief medical examiner is still trying to positively identify one person.
The news came as crews worked to try to recover the cockpit and other parts of the jetliner from the Potomac River. Officials said their work might depend upon the wind and tidal conditions in the river where the aircraft crashed.
