Investigators say crucial safety feature deactivated on Army helicopter before crash

National Transportation Safety Board investigators found that the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter’s air traffic tracking feature, commonly referred to as ADS-B, was not active when the helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet over the Potomac. Sen. Ted Cruz shared the update with the media after he received a briefing from the board on Thursday. The tracking feature is typically required in most tower-controlled airspace, according to the FAA. It is not required for military aircraft.

The helicopter was equipped with a transponder, so it did appear on radar, but the ADS-B system would have provided air traffic controllers with far more precise data on the chopper’s movements, Cruz explained. The three soldiers in the helicopter were on a training mission and had no need to turn such an important feature off, Cruz said. The Texas senator emphasized the need to learn from this tragedy and modernize air traffic control operations. Tower operators still use floppy disks and scrap paper notes to direct 21st-century air traffic, he said. Cruz cautioned against public speculation about the cause of the accident but confirmed that the Black Hawk helicopter was flying well outside the altitude limits for the area.

Any other investigative updates? Preliminary evidence from the cockpit voice recordings suggested that the soldiers were also wearing night vision goggles during the flight, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said Thursday. Salvage crews pulled major sections of both aircraft from the Potomac about a week after the crash and will continue to search the river for smaller sections of the wreckage to analyze. Authorities also successfully recovered and identified the bodies of all 67 people killed in the accident.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report for more details on the identities of victims.