An air traffic control veteran with 23 years of experience has revealed the mistake operators made in the moments leading up to the deadly collision in Washington, DC.

An American Airlines jet with 64 people onboard crashed with a US Army helicopter carrying three soldiers over the icy waters of the Potomac River Wednesday night, killing everyone.

The Black Hawk helicopter apparently flew in the jet’s path as it landed at Ronald Reagan National Airport. 

An experienced air traffic controller told DailyMail.com that the air traffic control (ATC) audio that emerged from the crash showed the operator’s instructions to the helicopter were ‘very ambiguous.’

In the nearly minute-and-a-half recording, ATC operators can be heard asking the helicopter if the commercial flight is in sight.

Through muffled audio, more commands and confirmations are made between ATC operators.

One air traffic controller said to the helicopter pilot: ‘PAT 2-5, do you have the CRJ in sight?’

Seconds later, the controller spoke again, requesting: ‘Pat 2-5 pass behind the CRJ.’

The veteran air traffic controller, who has worked in six different airports throughout the country, said that if those commands were the Black Hawk’s first reference to the plane, the instructions were unclear.

‘It would have been very ambiguous as far as, “Okay, what plane? Well, where am I looking?”‘ he said.

‘Whenever you give directions to people, we use the 12 points on a clock. Let’s say 12 o’clock is north. If I say, “Look to your nine o’clock” that would mean look to your left or to the west.

‘So, if I had a helicopter that was coming into my airspace and I wanted him to see an airplane, I would say, “PAT 2-5 traffic, nine o’clock, three miles regional jet inbound to the airport.”

He noted that air traffic controllers have a massive responsibility to give accurate and detailed information to pilots.

‘We have to be right all the time because if we’re not, people die. Air Traffic Controllers have hundreds if not thousands of lives on our screen, our radar scope at one time,’ the veteran controller said.

‘What we say goes if we tell you to do something, you better do it because we’re trying to ensure your safety. 

‘The pilot in command can disregard instructions if they think that their aircraft is going to be in imminent danger, but you’d better have a good reason because they’re going to be asked why they did it.’ 

Devastating radar footage captured the moment the doomed American Airlines flight collided with a US Army helicopter. 

The Black Hawk helicopter cut through the airspace from the opposite direction under cover of darkness, with both aircraft seemingly unaware of the other’s presence.

They slammed into one another just 400ft above ground, erupting in a violent explosion before plunging into the freezing Potomac River below.

Air Traffic Control radar footage showed the fateful moment the two aircraft crossed paths. 

The American Airlines flight, labeled JIA5342, and the Army Black Hawk helicopter, labeled PAT25, appeared to be facing each other head-on leading up to the crash.

The helicopter’s path remained relatively straight while the American Airlines flight veered to make its landing, and the two collided.

ATC staff numbers at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday were ‘not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic’, and controllers were more overworked than usual, according to an internal preliminary Federal Aviation Administration safety report seen by the New York Times. 

Reagan National has been understaffed for many years, with just 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

Chronic understaffing at air traffic control towers is nothing new, with well-known causes including high turnover (made worse by overwork-induced burnout) and budget cuts.

Controllers frequently work 10 hours daily, six days a week, to fill the void.  

The preliminary crash report detailed that the lack of staff meant the controller monitoring and directing helicopters near DCA was also instructing planes to land and depart on the runways.

Usually two controllers would handle these roles, as staff use two different radio frequencies to talk to planes and helicopter pilots.

While the controller is talking to them, the pilots of each aircraft may not be able hear each other.