SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Investigators are still trying to understand why a military helicopter collided with a passenger jet two nights ago at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. For now, federal authorities have restricted helicopter flights near the airport. That's as the search continues for the bodies of the 67 passengers who were on board. NPR's Joel Rose has been following all of this. Hi, Joel.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hi, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: Tell us about these flight restrictions.
ROSE: The Federal Aviation Administration will limit helicopter flights on routes along the Potomac River, near the airport, as well as over the airport itself. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that would, quote, "help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic," unquote. The FAA says helicopter traffic will be restricted but will not be completely suspended. There will be exemptions for medical emergency flights, for active law enforcement and air defense or for presidential transport missions that must operate in the restricted area as investigators continue to pore over this part of the Potomac River where the two aircraft went down.
PFEIFFER: The helicopter that collided with the passenger jet was a U.S. Army Black Hawk. Was that helicopter flying where it was supposed to be?
ROSE: It does not appear so, based on NPR's analysis of flight data along with new video footage that circulated today of the collision, which show the helicopter outside of the flight corridor where it was supposed to be operating. Instead, it was well out over the Potomac River when it collided with the plane. And sources tell NPR the helicopter was also flying above the 200-foot ceiling that it was required to maintain.
PFEIFFER: And is it known whether the passenger jet was in the right place?
ROSE: The plane, it appears, was doing what it was told to do. It was lining up to land on Runway 33. Air traffic controllers did ask the plane to switch from one runway to another runway, which did require a slightly different angle of approach, but air traffic controllers who have spoken to NPR say that is not unusual. It is a routine part of flying into this airport and many others, not anything out of the ordinary, they say.
PFEIFFER: There are reports that the air traffic control tower may have been understaffed at the time of the collision. Can you tell us anything about that?
ROSE: Yes. Several outlets have reported on an internal FAA memo that says an air traffic controller was doing double duty in two separate positions at the time of the collision because staffing was lower than normal. NPR, by the way, has not been able to confirm that memo. The president of the air traffic controllers union, Nick Daniels, was asked about it today by CBS this morning, and Daniels said he could not address this particular incident, but he did say this.
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NICK DANIELS: It is not uncommon for us to routinely combine positions. There is usually someone in a supervisory position looking at the overall workload and complexity in order to make those determinations of what positions we need to open and when we need them open.
ROSE: You know, this is something that would be normal late at night, when there is less air traffic and not just at this airport, not just at DCA, but at many control towers. Whether that was a factor here is not clear. It's something that investigators will likely be looking at, but that's going to take more time.
PFEIFFER: And Joel, with everything you've just told us, how close or how much closer are investigators getting to be able to say why this happened?
ROSE: Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board say they have recovered the black box from the helicopter. In this case, that is a combined voice and data recorder. Now they will try to extract that information from it. And if that works, it should tell us a lot about what was happening in the moments before the collision. The NTSB has also begun interviewing the air traffic controllers who were on duty. But this investigation will take time. NTSB board members have been emphatic that they will not speculate, they will wait for the facts before drawing any conclusions. We're expecting their preliminary report in about four weeks.
PFEIFFER: That's NPR transportation correspondent Joel Rose. Thank you for covering this.
ROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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