Robert Sumwalt is the former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. He joined CBS News to discuss Wednesday's midair collision between an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter and the ensuing investigation.

Washington

A regional jet carrying 64 people collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC.

D.C. Crash

The recent midair collision involving an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Former NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt shed light on the procedure of reviewing black box data, highlighting its significance in understanding the incident. The black boxes have been recovered, a crucial step in gathering audio evidence from the cockpit voice recorder. 

The review process involves various stakeholders, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Defense (DOD), and the airline, who collectively analyze the audio. A written transcript of the recordings is created to scrutinize dialogues and identify critical communication details that might have led to the collision. According to Sumwalt, the current focus is on retrieving perishable evidence, with in-depth analysis to follow.

Sumwalt emphasized the NTSB's commitment to independent investigation, even amidst calls from the White House for a swift conclusion. He emphasized the importance of giving the board enough time and resources to ensure a comprehensive and accurate investigation. 



Former NTSB chair explains process of reviewing black box evidence

Search and recovery efforts resumed this morning to find the missing victims. The National Transportation Safety Board says it has found key clues in its investigation. For more on this, I want to bring in CBS News Transportation Safety Expert and Analyst Robert Sumwalt. Robert, good to see you. He's also, we should mention, the former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. And Robert, now that the NTSB has confirmed it has recovered those black boxes, tell us about the process of reviewing that potentially critical evidence. Yeah. Well, I can, good morning. And I can start out by telling you what it's like to audition a cockpit voice recorder. I did it before. And so they gather the various parties, the FAA, the airline, the, the DOD will be a part of it. And all of these relevant players will sit around a table and they'll play the tape. And as they're, as they're playing it, somebody will be typing out what they're hearing. If they don't understand what something was said, they will back it up, play it again. So they create a written transcript of the audio portion of the tape. I also want to ask you, Robert, about what's happening on the ground and in the water right now in terms of collecting and analyzing such a huge volume of wreckage. I imagine the focus right now is just retrieval. You're right. It is retrieval at this point. And to be honest with you, the FAA is, excuse me, the NTSB is not really analyzing anything at this point. They are collecting the perishable evidence, the evidence that can go away with the passage of time. That's their main focus right now. The analysis phase will come later. Robert, the White House is also pushing for a pretty speedy investigation. I just wonder if that kind of pressure could impact this process at all. Well, it's certainly something to, to keep in mind. One of the NTSB's values is independence, and that's independence to make sure that they have the freedom to conduct the investigation the way that it needs to be done. I was with the NTSB for 15 years. Great people, great organization. They will do a very good job, but they need the time and the resources to do the job properly. Robert Sumwalt, thanks so much for your time and perspective. We appreciate it.

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