People across the United States are mourning the tragic loss of 67 people after a passenger plane crashed with a military helicopter Wednesday night. While there are so many unanswered questions and the investigation in our nation's Capitol plays out, Arizona aviation experts sat down with ABC15.
"Safety is the top priority," said Assistant Professor of Air Traffic Management at Embry-Riddle in Prescott Kyle Wilkerson. "No matter what we are we are not going to be sending airplanes into the air unless we can be safe."
Wilkerson said he wants to assure the public that instructors make sure their students are prepared.
"You're going to hear it all the time, the aviation industry specifically with the FAA and the national airspace in the United States is the safest in the world for a reason," said Wilkerson. "We focus on it a lot."
He said they go through simulations, which is crucial.
"Putting a student in that situation and making it as realistic as possible is the most important thing," said Wilkerson.
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He did tell ABC15 there is a shortage of air traffic controllers, but typically at a large airport like Reagan National Airport or Sky Harbor staff have years of experience.
"They're extremely experienced controllers, hands down," said Wilkerson.
He and other aviation instructors believe if needed, changes will be made.
"Unfortunately, when we have an incident that is as tragic as this one; we have to rely on all of the steps that led up to it, and then we have to learn from it," said Wilkerson.
"It really just has to come down to what the investigation reveals," said Valley flight instructor Devin Starr.
Starr has closely been following the details that have been released from the crash.
"So maybe there's something that we can't see from the videos," said Starr. "You know, they'll analyze the radar, they'll analyze the radios, they'll analyze the black boxes on the aircraft."
It’s a tragic situation, and Starr said he will talk it through with his students.
But for those with travel plans, Starr said he wants to quell travelers' fears.
"If anything, it's less likely to happen now that a hole has been exposed in the safety net," said Starr. "So they will do what they can to - to try and fix this and make sure that this isn't a possibility again."
