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Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 31, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba KILDONAN PARK GOLF COURSE R E D R I V E R C H I E F P E G U I S T R A I L M A I N S T P E R I M E T E R H W Y R I D G E C R E S T A V E S C O T I A S T H E N D E R S O N H W Y H E N D E R S O N H W Y River Ridge II 2701 Scotia St. Winnipeg, MB A s s i s t e d L i v i n g E n h a n c e d O n l y 2 S u i t e s w i t h P r i v a t e B a l c o n i e s R e m a i n i n g Enhanced Assisted Living provides care and support 24/7 allowing residents to Age In Place safely and comfortably throughout the years! Call Chassity to Arrange Your Personal Tour 204.272.0369 PROUDLY CANADIAN www.allseniorscare.com Worry-Free Living At Its Finest A4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CANADA / WORLD FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2025 Deadly mid-air collision shouldn’t spark wider safety concerns: experts A DEADLY mid-air crash in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night occurred amid air traffic pat- terns unique to the area that should not be cause for broader concerns about plane safety, experts say. The collision occurred in one of the most con- gested and complex air corridors on the contin- ent. Numerous no-fly zones around landmarks such as the White House and the Pentagon make for narrower traffic lanes, all within a region home to three major airports, multiple regional airports and dozens of heliports. “It’s probably the busiest runway in the U.S., and when you have that level of volume and you also have military flights that use airspace around D.C. it was an accident waiting to happen,” said John Gradek, who teaches aviation manage- ment at McGill University. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has seen rising activity over the years. It hosts more passengers than any other airport in the area, while military aircraft also frequently fly there, making it a higher-risk airspace, he said. The collision between an American Airlines jet carrying 64 people and a Black Hawk army heli- copter carrying three soldiers has killed every- one on board both aircraft, officials said, making it the worst U.S. aviation disaster in almost a quarter century. Global Affairs said it was not aware of any Can- adians on board the flight. The Transportation Safety Board has deployed two team members to support U.S. investigators, since the aircraft was a Canadian-made Bombar- dier CRJ-700 regional jet. There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but officials said the jet was making a rou- tine landing when the helicopter flew into its path. Audio from air traffic controllers confirms they told the helicopter about the plane so it would have been the responsibility of the helicopter pi- lot to avoid the jet, Gradek said. “It is up to the military helicopters to really make sure they are very aware of what the traffic is around them and they have to fly and avoid the incoming aircraft or outgoing aircraft.” The pilots of the jet would have been focused on landing as they were at around 350 feet (106 metres) of elevation, flying 225 kilometres an hour when the collision happened, he said, mak- ing it even more important for the helicopter to steer clear. “The Black Hawk, from what I understand, did acknowledge visual on the aircraft,” said Gradek. “Whether they visually recognized the right air- plane or not is something that investigators will be looking at.” He said that while there are concerns about air traffic controller shortages in Canada, flight volumes are managed so they’re never over- stretched. At peak travel times like the summer there could be limits placed on flight numbers due to a dearth of controllers, he said. There are also no airports in Canada that have anywhere near the volume of military flights that the D.C. area sees, reinforcing the unique circum- stances of the crash, he said. “It’s an aberration as far as I’m concerned. It’s not something that we should panic over at this point in time.” However, the crash follows several near misses at Reagan National Airport and other U.S. hubs over the past two years, which prompted some officials and industry players to sound the alarm. Last year, U.S. Congress mandated more daily flights at the hub — popular among the capital’s political class due to its proximity to downtown — despite opposition from the airport and some legislators to more traffic. In 2023, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administra- tion convened industry leaders to address what it saw as a national system under strain. The agency announced plans to ratchet up hiring of air traffic controllers, deal with complaints of fatigue and in- stall new technology to alert personnel when planes were on a possible collision course. Wednesday’s crash could spark renewed calls for safety and tighter rules. “This could have far-reaching implications,” said Duncan Dee, former chief operating officer at Air Canada. “Does this mean they’re going to have to reduce the number of aircraft in that very tight airspace?” Rules around the distance between planes might also come under scrutiny, he said. “Technology and practices and regulations have allowed these already busy airports to become busi- er. But at what point does it become too many?” Dee said that the U.S. is often viewed as the gold standard for aviation safety. “My first reaction was just disbelief.” While rare, collisions between helicopters and aircraft are not unheard of in Canada. On a blue-sky day last July, a four-seat Cessna plane and a Bell helicopter struck each other in mid-air northwest of Edmonton in broad daylight. The Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the incident, which resulted in no injuries. Both the helicopter, carrying a single pi- lot, and the Cessna, which had a student and flight instructor on board, managed to land safely. In December 2023, Canada received a C grade on flight safety oversight — down from an A+ al- most two decades earlier and far below most of its peers — according to a draft report from a United Nations agency. A shortage of air traffic controllers and a trend toward off-loading safety responsibilities from government to industry remain concerns across the continent, said Ross Aimer, CEO of Califor- nia-based Aero Consulting Experts. — The Canadian Press, with files from The Associated Press IAN BICKIS, CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS AND JORDAN OMSTEAD Collision between jetliner and army helicopter kills 67 Deadliest U.S. air disaster in a quarter century A RLINGTON, Va. — A mid-air collision be- tween an army helicopter and a jetliner killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, officials said Thursday, as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot in the country’s dead- liest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century. At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the American Airlines regional jet late Wednesday while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, just across the river from Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter. One air traffic controller was responsible for co-ordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Ad- ministration obtained by The Associated Press. Those duties are often shared by two people, but the airport typically combines the separate roles at 9:30 p.m., once traffic begins to slow down. The supervisor in the tower directed they be combined earlier. “The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said. A person familiar with the matter, however, said the tower staffing on Wednesday night was at a normal level. The positions are regularly combined when con- trollers need to step away from the console for breaks, during shift changes or when air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures. U.S. President Donald Trump told a White House news conference that no one survived. “We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital. Air crash investigations can take months and federal investigators told reporters they would not speculate on what caused the collision. The flight data recorders, for example, were still underwater, National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jennifer Homendy said. The plane was found upside-down in three sec- tions in waist-deep water and first responders were searching an area of the Potomac as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometres) south of the airport, Donnelly said. The helicopter wreckage was also found. Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage. Officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas. A top army aviation official said the Black Hawk crew was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around Washington. “Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for army aviation. The helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude at the time of the crash was 200 feet (60 metres) above ground, Koziol said. It was not immediately clear whether the helicopter exceeded that limit, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that alti- tude seemed to be a factor in the collision. Koziol said investigators need to analyze the flight data before making conclusions about altitude. Trump opened the White House news confer- ence after the crash with a moment of silence hon- ouring the victims, calling it an “hour of anguish” for the country. But he spent most of his time casting political blame, lashing out at former president Joe Biden’s administration and diversity efforts at the Feder- al Aviation Administration, saying they had led to slipping standards — even as he acknowledged that the cause of the crash was unknown. Without evidence, Trump blamed air traffic controllers, the helicopter pilots and Democratic policies at federal agencies. He claimed the FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer se- vere intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative.” Inside Reagan National Airport, the mood was sombre Thursday as stranded passengers waited for flights to resume, sidestepping camera crews and staring out the terminal’s windows at the Po- tomac, where recovery efforts were barely visible in the distance. Flights resumed at the airport around midday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was sworn in earlier this week, said there were “early indicators of what happened.” He declined to elab- orate. Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of Belle Har- bor, N.Y., just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard. The last major fatal crash involving a U.S. com- mercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, N.Y. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 pro- peller plane was killed, along with one person on the ground, bringing the total death toll to 50. Experts often highlight that plane travel is over- whelmingly safe. The National Safety Council es- timates that Americans have a one-in-93 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, while deaths on airplanes are too rare to calculate the odds. Fig- ures from the Department of Transportation tell a similar story. Passengers on Wednesday’s flight included a group of figure skaters, their coaches and family members who were returning from a development camp that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Cham- pionships in Wichita. The crash devastated Wichita, the Kansas city that prides itself on being in America’s heartland. It hosted the figure skating championships this year for the first time. The city has been a major hub for the aircraft industry since the early days of commercial flight and it is home to the U.S. headquarters for Bom- bardier, which manufactured the jetliner. So many regional workers have jobs tied to the industry that the area economy slumps when sales dip. After the crash, several hundred people gath- ered in the city council chambers for a prayer vigil led by Mayor Lily Wu and religious leaders. Carla Lee, a retired Wichita State University nursing professor, brought a vase of red roses. She is set to go to Washington next week for a confer- ence, taking the same flight. “It hits you, how short life can be,” she said. The FAA said the midair crash occurred before 9 p.m. EST just over 3 miles (4.8 kilometres) south of the White House and the Capitol. Flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet (122 metres) and a speed of about 140 m.p.h. (225 kp/h) when it rapid- ly lost altitude over the Potomac, according to data from its radio transponder. The Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 twin-engine jet, manufac- tured in 2004, can be configured to carry up to 70 passengers. A few minutes before landing, air traffic con- trollers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National and the pilots said they were able. Con- trollers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight-tracking sites showed the plane adjusted its approach to the new runway. Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made an- other radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided. — The Associated Press LOLITA C. BALDOR, TARA COPP, ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON AND LEA SKENE MARK SCHIEFELBEIN / AP PHOTO Search and rescue efforts are seen around a wreckage site in the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport early Thursday morning in Arlington, Va. ● MORE COVERAGE ON D1 ;