TULSA, Okla. — Just like the rest of the world, in the hours that followed the catastrophic crash near Reagan Washington National Airport, Byron Barnhart's eyes were glued to the TV.
For nearly 40 years, Barnhart was a pilot in the U.S. Army, retiring in 2010 as an Army Commander. While he flew a number of different aircrafts, half of his career was spent in a Black Hawk helicopter.
The same kind of helicopter that collided with an American Airlines passenger jet on Wednesday night.
National
NTSB says preliminary report on airline crash will be released in 30 days
2 News asked Barnhart about his training, and how he was prepared for similar incidents.
“A black hawk is a crewed aircraft, so it isn’t just a single pilot aircraft," he said. "You have two pilots, which are required to fly the aircraft and up to two crew chiefs in the back of the aircraft. It takes the coordination of all of those crew members to safely fly the aircraft."
Barnhart, an expert in flight, as he still takes to the sky daily as Tulsa Police Department's senior pilot.
While he didn't want to speculate on what could have led to the tragedy, Barnhart did provide context to the complexities of flying at night.
“Night flying is a different environment," said Barnhart. "Your vision is much more restricted, and during the day time you have a lot of peripheral vision and distant vision because of the light, and now your environment closes in.”
It's unclear if the crew aboard the Black Hawk involved in the crash was wearing night vision goggles.
However, Barnhart said that equipment isn't without it's own complexities.
“Most army aviators are equip with night vision goggles on any night flight, so it’s certainly possible that they were equip with night vision goggles, but there’s limitations to the night vision goggles as well," said Barnhart. "And part of that is once again, all of the lighting in the city.”
The only lighting a pilot can rely on for sight at night, Barnhart explained, are the lights on surrounding planes. He said in the dead of night, that light can easily get lost or blend in with ground lighting.
National
System that alerts pilots of other aircraft may have been disabled before crash
"When you start introducing other air craft into the environment, into the same air space, now the challenge becomes being able to see and identify that other air craft and being able to maintain visual tracking on the air craft so that you know where its at," he said. "That’s difficult to do.”
This tragedy is the first major plane crash in the U.S. in over a decade.
For that reason, Barnhart understands the mass concern, but still feels that flying in America is the safest place to do it.
He said he has faith in air traffic controllers, and the technology on board American air crafts.
“Humans can make mistakes," said the retired Army Commander. "Whether it was in the cockpit or it was on the ground. It doesn’t matter. We have to learn from it, make those corrections so we don’t see accidents like this again.”
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- SUBSCRIBE on YouTube
