NEW YORK — As we learn more about the deadly midair collision between a regional passenger jet and military helicopter in Washington, D.C., authorities are searching for clues that will help them determine what led up to the crash.

Part of the investigation may involve seeking information from tracking devices, black boxes or other flight data recorders from the aircraft involved.

According to WABC-TV helicopter pilot John Del Giorno, Black Hawk military helicopters don’t have the same kind of equipment that commercial aircraft have, such as a cockpit voice recorder.

Del Giorno says the aviation industry polices itself very aggressively: when a problem is identified, it is attacked.

One of the advances in recent aviation is collision avoidance technology.

In the last few years, commercial and private aircraft have been equipped with transponders that transmit both location and altitude. This information is transmitted to everyone, including on FlightAware, and is also available from aircraft to aircraft.

In terms of mechanisms that are supposed help avoid collisions in midair, commercial aircraft have a TCAS, or a Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System. This system alerts a pilot to a nearby aircraft, and is meant to give a pilot direction at the last minute to avoid a possible collision.

The key to the Washington, D.C., investigation will be where the accident took place.

It is not unusual for helicopters to be operating near the Reagan National Airport, with military and law enforcement having a constant presence over the Potomac River.

According to Del Giorno, the commercial airplane may have been low enough in altitude that the TCAS system wouldn’t alert the pilot because it didn’t want to give false alarms to planes on the ground, giving them little time to react.

Meanwhile, some may be concerned that an air traffic controller shortage could have played a role in the collision.

Del Giorno cautions that it is too early to say if this played a factor.