Abnormalities in the tragedy of military helicopter crashing into passenger plane in the US

The New York Times reported that the air traffic control tower staff who handle military helicopter operations in the vicinity of Ronald Reagan National Airport also give instructions for passenger planes to take off and land on the airport's runway.

Normally, this is the job of two different people. It is unclear why the control tower was understaffed on the night of the January 29 crash.

At around 9:00 p.m. on January 29 (local time), American Airlines flight AAL 5342 collided with a UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopter of the US Army, killing all 67 people on both vehicles.

American Airlines said the ill-fated flight was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while the US military said three service members were on board the Black Hawk.

Just before the crash, the pilots on the civilian plane received instructions to divert to another runway, according to a source familiar with the matter.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the captain was an experienced pilot.

The Black Hawk helicopter crew is also experienced, with the pilot having about 1,000 hours of flight time and the co-pilot having about 500 hours. The other is the crew commander and is very familiar with the area, according to Reuters, citing Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for the Army's Directorate of Aviation.

The crew on the UH-60 was also equipped with night vision goggles on board and may have used them throughout the flight.

The night of January 29 was clear and both military planes and helicopters followed standard flight paths, according to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

CBS News quoted informed sources as saying that on January 31, authorities successfully recovered the black boxes from the American Airlines plane and hope to soon complete the decoding to find out what happened that night.