[Ammi]

Black Hawk helicopter had safety system turned off during Washington plane crash…


A key safety system was turned off in a US army helicopter when it crashed into an American Airlines flight last week, killing 67 people.

Ted Cruz, the chairman of the Senate commerce committee, told reporters that the Black Hawk helicopter had switched off an advanced surveillance technology known as automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B).

“This was a training mission, so there was no compelling national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off,” Mr Cruz said on Thursday, following a briefing from federal transport bodies.

Mr Cruz said the helicopter would still have appeared on radar because it had a transponder on it, but said ADS-B would have been significantly more accurate.

Investigators are still working to establish what precisely caused the collision between the helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 close to Washington DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport.

All 64 people onboard the jet, which included a number of teenage figure skaters, and the three service members in the helicopter were killed in the US’ deadliest air disaster since 2001.

Mr Cruz, the Texas senator, said he had asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct a review of helicopter routes near other congested airports.