It’s “inexplicable” how American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter ended up occupying the same airspace, leading to a deadly collision Wednesday night over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., former FAA Deputy Administrator Dan Elwell commented on Newsmax on Thursday.

But it is possible that the jet lost sight of the helicopter, or potentially, the helicopter lost sight of the jet, when the order came from the Reagan National Airport for the plane to land at a shorter runway, Elwell, who flew commercial jets out of Washington, D.C., for 15 years, told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.”

“It’s going to take a good, good bit of investigating to figure out how those two aircraft occupied the same airspace at the same time,” he said. “Obviously, it’s designed not to happen that way.”

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