She 'was a real person': Mom of crash victim speaks out as FAA faces scrutiny

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When Gwen Duggins flew from Wichita to Washington, D.C., earlier this week, she was on the same route her daughter had taken when she died.

Kiah Duggins was one of the 67 people who died when an American Airlines regional jet arriving from Wichita collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29. It was the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in decades.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched a probe into the tragedy, which includes the three-day investigative hearings taking place this week.

Though Duggins called her flight “difficult,” she said she wanted to attend the hearing to show agency leaders her daughter, Kiah, a 30-year-old civil rights attorney, “was a real person.”

“Those here in the hearings need to see us and understand that this is personal,” Duggins told Paste BN. “Those are not just numbers, but they are real people with real families who loved them and cared about them.”

Here are some of the takeaways from the hearings.

Takeaway #1: The FAA allegedly knew of ongoing risks at DCA

Preliminary investigative results released shortly after the accident showed the FAA was aware of ongoing risks at the airport, particularly with military aircraft, but did not take action before the crash, the NTSB alleged.

Other issues with DCA included airspace congestion and a shortage of air traffic controllers. 

Following the tragedy, the FAA restricted the use of military helicopters along Route 1, a helicopter route on the Potomac River that passed in front of DCA’s runway 33. 

Wednesday and Thursday's portions of the hearing partly focused on the roles the Army and FAA played on the night of the crash, with NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy telling FAA officials the agency did not act on warnings from air traffic control staff who had previously suggested flight path changes to avoid collision threats. 

“Every sign was there that there was a safety risk, and the tower was telling you,” said the chairwoman. 

In a statement posted to X, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, who has been a leader in the investigation into the incident, said: “The NTSB hearing revealed the conflicts on the DCA helicopter routes were so clear that an air traffic control working group suggested changing them. 

“What caused the FAA’s oversight to be so flawed that they couldn’t fix this problem before this tragedy occurred?”

Is flying still safe?: Yes. Here's what travelers should know.

Takeaway #2: The 'make it work mentality'

NTSB investigator Brian Soper asked air traffic control officials whether a “make it work mentality has been normalized at DCA airport.”

National Airport Operations Manager Clark Allen said he believed it had.

“There’s limited real estate for the airport and where to put aircraft, and that can back up very easily,” Allen testified. “So, being a high-volume, high-complexity airport, with not a lot of real estate, you have to keep things moving in order to provide a safe and efficient service.”

Bryan Lehman, an FAA front-line manager, said his tower is currently dealing with many of the issues DCA has and is performing “non-standard air traffic maneuvers” on a daily basis.

“We take pride in it,” said Lehman, adding, “But I will say that at a certain point, it’s too much.”

Investigators also pressed officials on staffing turnover. Allen said Wednesday that the DCA control tower has had approximately 10 air traffic wardens since early 2013.

“Air traffic managers are responsible for considering any sort of changes to routes, any sort of changes, amendments, evaluation of routes annually,” Homendy responded. “You've had 10 air traffic managers in a pretty small amount of time. You've had five in the past five years, three in the past two years. How are they supposed to know to do that if you keep switching air traffic managers?”

Takeaway #3: Investigators probe collision alerts' effectiveness

Friday’s hearing featured witnesses from the U.S. Army, FAA, the regional carrier PSA Airlines, and American Airlines, among other organizations. NTSB investigators probed the witnesses on how traffic alert and collision avoidance systems help pilots avoid mid-air collisions.

The videos raised questions about the amount of time pilots have to react to an alert and assess whether it poses a danger to the aircraft. Approximately 15 seconds before the crash, an air traffic control operator asked the Army helicopter if it had the jet in sight.

What’s more, the alert systems do not display in detail a direction a threat might be heading toward, leaving pilots to search for oncoming traffic by looking out the window. 

“This would have occurred at an extremely busy phase of flight,” PSA Airlines Captain Grant Clow testified. “They would have had a number of other tasks that also needed to be prioritized.

“It is not possible, you know, to sit and stare and fixate on looking for the traffic above all other priorities.” The crash occurred as the regional jet was on its descent into the airport. 

Victims' families respond

Many of the victims of the plane crash were children and their parents returning from a figure skating competition in Wichita, Kansas.

Duggans, a retired middle school teacher, said she hopes the hearing will provide answers as to what could’ve prevented the accident. 

Still, despite the national attention and federal action, she said she’s not convinced something like this won’t happen in the future.

“There are so many bureaucratic systems,” she said, adding she wants agencies to “lay aside the bureaucracy and do what’s best for the American public in terms of flight safety.”

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Contributing: Nathan Diller, Paste BN

Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter at Paste BN. Contact her at mdelrey@usatoday.com.