NEW YORK (WABC) -- 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 obtaining information from the aircraft's tracking devices, black boxes, or other flight data recorders.
Eyewitness News helicopter pilot John Del Giorno says Black Hawk military helicopters don't have the same equipment as commercial aircraft, such as a cockpit voice recorder.
Del Giorno, who pilots NewsCopter 7, says the aviation industry polices itself 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 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 to 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 operate near the Reagan National Airport, and military and law enforcement personnel are constantly present 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.
Back at home, NewsCopter 7 regularly operates near the area airports in the Tri-State area. In conversation with air officials, Del Giorno says they will request a location and the controller will confirm if there are any aircraft in the area, asking a question along the lines of, "Do you have visual contact of the airplane?"
If the flight is approved to proceed, the controller will instruct the helicopter pilot to maintain visual separation. At that point, the helicopter is responsible for avoiding the other air traffic.
The controller has done everything they can after asking for visual confirmation of an airplane and instructing the pilot to avoid the airplane.
In other words, it's ultimately the helicopter's responsibility to see and avoid.
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