5 new details from hearing on DC crash that killed 67
thehill.com

... New details are emerging about the deadly collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter in January near Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed 67 people.

Three days of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearings, along with thousands of pages of documents, suggest that the Black Hawk helicopter may have been relying on misleading instrument readings when it was operating too high over the Potomac River in the lead-up to the midair collision.

The crash, alongside nonfatal but significant disruptions at other U.S. airports, brought national attention to longstanding strains on the air traffic control workforce.

On the second day of hearings, investigators probed a sentiment they had heard repeatedly from air traffic controllers about managing National Airport's complicated airspace with short staffing: "We just make it work."

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials defended the controllers as "public servants" but also acknowledged the challenges faced by the airport and air safety regulators.

"We're pushing the line," admitted Clark Allen, the operations manager at National Airport at the time of the crash.

Here are five takeaways from the first two days of hearings. ...