Hero pilot Captain Sully shares terrifying theory on why DC plane crash happened

Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger has said he believes flying at night over water could be factors in what led to a American Airlines flight colliding with a helicopter, killing 67 people.

Sully, who famously landed a passenger plane on the Hudson River in 2009, told The New York Times the two factors could have made avoiding the chopper harder.

He said: ‘There would have been fewer ground lights visible over the water than over land at night.’

According to Sully, this ‘might have made it a little bit harder to see’.

The 74-year-old added: ‘Nighttime always makes things different about seeing other aircraft — basically all you can do is see the lights on them.

‘You have to try to figure out: Are they above you or below you? Or how far away? Or which direction are they headed? Everything is harder at night.’

Sully told the outlet that he hoped the cockpit voice recorder, the inflight data recorder and air-traffic control data would help clear up what went wrong.

He added: ‘I’m just devastated by this. We have the obligation to learn from every failure and improve.’

Sully had also appeared on Good Morning America on Thursday to discuss the collision.

He said that it was apparent that at least one of the pilots was able to see the other, and that the air traffic controller was not required to step in to separate the two.

Sully told the outlet: ‘It seems apparent from the air traffic control communications that the airplanes were able to see each other, at least one was able to see the other.

‘The air traffic controller was able to relieve himself of the requirement to have him separate the airplanes, and the pilots would have to separate from each other visually by identifying the other aircraft and staying a safe distance away. Obviously at some point, separation was tragically lost.’

He then spoke generally about the safety of air travel, and likened the incident on Wednesday to a row of dominoes being ‘lined up the wrong way’.

‘It’s hard to have the diligence and the dedication to adhere to best practices on every minute of every hour of every day, every week, every month, every year for a decades long aviation career. Any lapse could potentially be fatal, even though we have a lot of safety.

‘If all the dominoes line up in the wrong way, we could have on rare occasions a catastrophic event.

‘Given enough time, given enough flights, given enough flight hours, eventually whatever can happen will happen unless we work very hard to prevent every incident from turning into an accident’, he added.

When asked about Reagan National Airport, Sully added that it was considered a special airport that pilots needed specific training on due to its short runways and its proximity to other airports.

The midair collision between the Army helicopter and the jet from Kansas near Reagan National Airport killed all 64 people onboard.

Three soldiers had been inside the helicopter at the time of the incident and had been on a training mission. They also died in the collision bringing the death toll to 67.

Sully was behind the yoke of US Airways Flight 1549 on January 15, 2009 when it encountered double engine failure after colliding with a flock of geese after takeoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.

All 155 people on board survived the plane’s crash landing into the Hudson River, which has since been dubbed the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’.

Sully was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 2016 movie named after him about the flight, which Clint Eastwood directed.

On Thursday evening, rescue crews digging through the wreckage managed to recover two black boxes from the waters of the Potomac River.

This will be of monumental assistance to authorities as they investigate what exactly happened in the moments leading to disaster.

A preliminary report has said that air traffic control staffing at the airport was ‘not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.

Reagan National has been understaffed for many years, with just 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

The situation appeared to have improved since then, as a source told CNN the Reagan National control tower was 85 percent staffed with 24 of 28 positions filled.

Chronic understaffing at air traffic control towers is nothing new, with well-known causes including high turnover and budget cuts. Controllers frequently work 10-hour days, six days a week, to fill the void.

The preliminary crash report detailed that the lack of staff meant the controller monitoring and directing helicopters near DCA was also instructing planes landing and departing on the runways.

Usually, two controllers would handle these roles, as staff use two different radio frequencies to talk to planes and helicopter pilots.

At least 40 bodies have since been pulled from the Potomac River following extensive recovery missions by emergency teams.

The bodies of all four flight crew members – including one who was mere months away from a promotion and wedding – were also recovered from the debris on Thursday.

The pilots of the American Eagle jet were Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Samuel Lilley, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed.

And both flight attendants who were on that tragic flight have been revealed as Ian Epstein and Danasia Elder.

In an situation eerily similar to what happened on Wednesday night, a Republic Airways flight had to abort landing at the airport on Tuesday after a helicopter appeared near its flight path.

Flightradar data for the flight shows the plane had been travelling from Windsor Locks in Connecticut to the city and had to dramatically gain altitude shortly after descending on Reagan National Airport. It eventually landed safely.