DC plane crash: NTSB report says Blackhawk helicopter was too high

DCA plane crash: NTSB report says Blackhawk helicopter was too high

D.C.?s mayor and the Commanders president speaking before the dc council today, pushing to get the stadium deal approved. On Friday, council members will vote on a plan to construct a new stadium for the team at its old RFK home. FOX 5?s Tom Fitzgerald is live inside the Wilson building.

WASHINGTON - The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is holding a three-day hearing on the deadly plane crash at Reagan Airport that took the lives of 67 people in January. The hearings began Wednesday morning. 

What we know:

The National Transportation Safety Board opened the hearings in Washington, with plans to question witnesses and investigators about how the actions of the Federal Aviation Administration and its air traffic controllers and the Army may have contributed to the nation’s deadliest plane crash since November 2001. It’s likely too early for the board to identify the cause of the crash.

RELATED: New audio, video from DCA plane crash released during NTSB hearing

The backstory:

On January 29, American Airlines Flight 5342 was preparing to touchdown at Ronald Reagan National Airport when air traffic controllers asked pilots if they could land the jet on a shorter runway a few minutes before landing, and they said they were able. 

Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight-tracking sites showed the plane adjusting its approach to the new runway. 

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the Black Hawk if it had the arriving plane in sight. 

The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, telling them, "PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ." Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided. 

The wreckage tumbled into the icy Potomac River and all 67 people on board — 60 passengers and four crew members on the American Eagle jetliner, and three people onboard the military helicopter — were killed in the crash. It marked the deadliest U.S. air disaster in almost 25 years.