Audio recordings from the helicopter then showed the air traffic controller telling the pilots that visual separation had been ‘authorized’.
The American Airlines airplane that had taken off from Wichita, Kansas, is thought to have been circling to land at this point.
Unknown factors caused Lobach to perform visual separation poorly, and 15 seconds later the helicopter struck the American Airlines aircraft, which was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members.
It is said that she disregarded her colleague Eaves’s advice to alter her direction prior to this fateful time.
The Black Hawk was only 15 seconds away from colliding with the jet, according to the New York Times account. Then, Warrant Officer Eaves focused on Captain Lobach.
He informed her that he thought air traffic control had instructed them to veer left, toward the east bank of the river.
