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‘A heart-wrenching moment;’ Local aviation expert reacts to deadly Army helicopter, plane crash

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DAYTON — Sixty-seven people are feared to be dead after an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight that was on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.

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The American Airlines flight was operated by PSA Airlines, which still has its corporate headquarters at Dayton International Airport but will soon be moving to Charlotte.

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News Center 7′s John Bedell has had aviation contacts tell him today that they wouldn’t be surprised if the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ends up finding out this crash could have been prevented.

“Just a heart-wrenching moment for everyone in the aviation industry and certainly with our friends at PSA based out of Dayton,” Jay Ratliff said.

Ratliff spent 20 years in commercial airline management. He’s based in Miami Township and has been an aviation analyst since 1999.

“And thankfully, it’s been 16 years since we’ve had a story like this that we needed to talk about,” he said.

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Ratliff said Wednesday’s tragic crash could have been caused by a number of factors. He said it may have been a medical emergency or a mechanical failure, pilot error, or lack of communication between the aircraft and air traffic control.

“The ultimate responsibility for all of this is air traffic control,” he said. “They’re the quarterback. They’re the ones that are calling the shots; aware of everybody that’s in that entire airspace, as far as where they happen to be.”

He said something went horribly wrong for the chopper and jet to end up in the same airspace at the same time.

“But the bottom line is that it just — it was a horrific accident that we’ll probably find out should have never happened,” Ratliff said.

He also said it could take the NTSB months to give an indication of how this tragedy happened.

“We’ll find out what caused it and then, as much as humanly possible, do what we can to try to change things to make aviation safer,” he said. “Because the bottom line is that’s the only way we can honor the memory of those that we lost is by making aviation safer for everyone else.”

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