The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger plane on Wednesday (29) at night was on an annual proficiency training flight, US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said on Thursday.
The Pentagon is retaining names and patents from the crew members until the closest relatives are notified, Hegseth said, but “it was a very experienced crew that was making a mandatory annual night evaluation. They had night vision glasses. ”
Also according to Hegseth, the unit, the 12th Aviation Battalion, is currently in an operational break, until what happened is reviewed. An investigation will seek to determine whether the helicopter was in the proper corridor and at the correct altitude at the time of the incident, he observed.
As reported to Fox by National Security Counselor Mike Waltz, the crew included an officer, a warrant officer and a crew chief.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy had no information available on Thursday morning about the Blackhawk helicopter flight record, but said that being classified as a training mission does not mean that they were inexperienced.
“We call these missions that are flew in the DC area, because our pilots are gaining hours and experience, from training missions,” said Duffy, “So don’t take into account how many hours the military aircraft pilots had.”
Jet pilots were also experienced
The American Airlines CEO gave a similar statement, and said the two riders aboard American Airlines flight 5342 were not new to complex commercial flights.
“These are experienced pilots,” said Robert Isom. “I know the captain was almost six years old at PSA Airlines, and the first officer almost two years.”
PSA Airlines, which operates flight 5342, is a regional airline owned and fully operated by American Airlines.
This content was originally published on aircraft pilots that collided were experienced, authorities say on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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