Hunt for answers

Was 'copter too high & off course? Did pilot focus on wrong light? Were there enough crew on Black Hawk and in control tower?

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

INVESTIGATORS probing the devastating collision between the American Airlines jet and a US army helicopter are focusing on the chopper crew's actions.

Experts think it may have been too high and outside its flight path, putting it in the path of the passenger jet.

All 64 people on the plane and the three soldiers in the helicopter died when both craft plunged into the Potomac River in Washington DC.

The dead include top figure skaters from the US and Russia, and a number of lawyers. The jet was about to land at Ronald Reagan Airport and new footage from a camera overlooking the runways appears to show a possible misjudgment by the Black Hawk pilot.

Ex-Department of Transportation inspector General Mary Schiavo said the crew may have mistaken the brighter moving light of another aircraft for that of the doomed jet.

She added: "We do see other lights in the area - particularly one bright light from another aircraft - when the control tower asks the helicopter 'Do you have the plane in sight?