Sen. Tammy Duckworth, former Black Hawk pilot, on flying in area where crash occurred [View all]

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Source: CBS News

Updated on: January 30, 2025 / 8:47 PM EST


Sen. Tammy Duckworth is calling for patience as the NTSB and FAA investigate the cause of the tragic collision of a Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines flight Wednesday night, but she is also pursuing information about how it occurred.

She told CBS News' Nikole Killion in an interview Thursday that she's requested a transcript of the air traffic control instructions and responses from the pilots. "What I did learn was that air traffic control did contact and speak with the helicopter crew twice, and they acknowledged the instructions twice," Duckworth said. "I also am asking for the flight path of both aircraft up until the moment of the impact."

The Illinois Democrat will have more insight than many of her colleagues — she is an Iraq War veteran and was a Black Hawk pilot before an RPG downed her helicopter during an Iraq deployment in 2004, costing Duckworth both of her legs and partial use of her right arm. Duckworth says she's certain that the soldiers who were piloting the Black Hawk Wednesday night were well trained because otherwise, "they wouldn't be out there in this special airspace — the airspace around Washington, D.C."

She noted that they were in the SFRA —the Washington, D.C., metropolitan Special Flight Restricted Area. It's a circular 30-nautical-mile area around Washington, D.C., which also surrounds the Flight-Restricted Zone, a smaller area encompassing Reagan National Airport." "You don't get to fly in that without additional flight training," Duckworth said.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tammy-duckworth-american-airlines-crash/