The Black Hawk helicopter involved in last week's plane crash in Washington D.C. had an advanced tracking device disabled before the collision, according to Senator Ted Cruz (R).
The Republican senator balked at the bombshell disclosure, which was shared with senators during a closed-door briefing.
The advanced tracking system, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, provides detailed information about an aircraft's location, altitude and speed to air traffic controllers, the New York Times reported.
The ADS-B system provides more accurate information than radar, which can have delays of a few seconds, the Times noted.
While the advanced tracking system can be turned off to hide the locations of government officials, that would not have been appropriate during the Black Hawk flight, which was on a training mission.
"In this instance, this was a training mission, so there was no compelling national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off," Cruz said.
Members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which Cruz chairs, received a briefing about the crash from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
"We're going to let the investigation play out and not get ahead of the NTSB findings," Col. Roger Cabiness, an Army spokesman, told the New York Times.
In the wake of the disaster, scrutiny has fallen on air traffic control, which was reportedly short-staffed, as well as the flight crew operating the doomed Black Hawk near Reagan National Airport.
The name of co-pilot Rebecca Lobach, a 28-year-old Army Captain from North Carolina, was initially withheld at her family's request. The helicopter was on a routine training mission to renew Lobach's certification when it crashed into an American Airlines flight over the Potomac River, killing 67.
"Sixty-seven souls lost their lives. We need to follow the evidence. We need to determine exactly what caused it," Cruz said. "And then we need to learn lessons from the cause of that accident. Do everything possible to prevent a subsequent accident."
A preliminary investigation has found the helicopter was flying about 100 feet above the limit. President Trump had blamed the helicopter's altitude - it seems correctly - before the finding was released.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot,” the president posted. “It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it?”
