By Pete Muntean, Alexandra Skores and Dalia Faheid

Washington, DC (CNN) — A preliminary analysis of the flight data and voice recorder on board a Black Hawk helicopter leading up to the collision with a commercial flight over Washington, DC, on January 29, indicated the helicopter’s altimeter may have been inaccurate and the pilots may not have heard some calls from the Reagan National Airport control tower, officials said.

The new data indicate the pilot and her instructor read out two different altitudes shortly before the crash, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters at a briefing Friday.

The radio altimeter on board the Black Hawk at the time of the deadly midair collision read 278 feet, Homendy said. That altimeter uses a radio beam to show the helicopter’s altitude above ground level, but it may not have been what the pilots of the helicopter were referencing at the time of the crash, Homendy noted.

The newly revealed data suggests the Army helicopter crew may not have realized they were flying higher than they were supposed to be when the aircraft collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 more than two weeks ago, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was flying a training mission in a dedicated helicopter route where it was not allowed to fly above 200 feet, according to a published FAA chart.

“What we don’t want to do is release radio altitude data so that people would blame the Black Hawk crew,” Homendy told CNN. “We need to know what they were seeing, and we can’t know that right now with the data we have, but we will get it.”

Homendy cautioned the information is preliminary and there are “inconsistencies” in the data. “It might not have been what the Black Hawk crew was seeing,” Homendy told CNN Friday. Homendy said the agency is trying to verify all the components of the helicopter.

“We are seeing conflicting information in the data, which is why we aren’t releasing altitude for the Black Hawk’s entire route,” Homendy said.

Determining the Black Hawk’s precise altitude at the time of the collision is seen as a crucial step in understanding how two aircraft collided under clear skies over some of the country’s most tightly controlled airspace.

Prior to the collision, the instructor pilot on board and the pilot flying the helicopter read out two different altitudes, and investigators are trying to determine why, Homendy said.

“Neither pilot made a comment discussing an altitude discrepancy,” Homendy said at the briefing. “At this time, we don’t know why there was a discrepancy between the two.”

The last radio altitude recorded for the regional jet was 313 feet, two seconds before the collision, according to Homendy.

One second before impact, the regional jet began to increase its pitch, or the up and down movement of a plane’s nose, reaching about nine degrees nose up at the time of collision, Homendy said, explaining the pilots on the regional jet saw something was about to happen before the collision. There was no any indication, however, the Black Hawk crew saw the possibility of a collision unfolding in front of them.

Investigators are looking into the systems to account for the discrepancy, she added, but it will “take a significant amount of work.” They’ll collaborate with manufacturers of the equipment and the army, Homendy said.

After comparing voice recordings from the control tower and the Black Hawk, investigators believe the helicopter pilots may not have heard some of the instructions from the tower.

In particular, 17 seconds before the collision, the tower told the helicopter to pass behind the commuter jet. But in the audio from the helicopter’s voice recorder, the instruction was not heard, possibly because the pilots had keyed their microphone to reach the tower at the same time.

Additionally, the audio indicates the Black Hawk crew many not have received an earlier transmission that the regional jet was “circling” to the runway.

Investigators continue examining key evidence

More than two weeks after the collision, investigators are continuing to examine the wreckage and flight data from both aircraft to reconstruct the events leading to the crash.

“This is not going to be an easy task,” Peter Goelz, former managing director of the NTSB, told CNN’s Brianna Keilar Friday afternoon. “It’s a hard job to figure out how this helicopter was off course.”

To determine the altitude the pilots saw on their gauges as they were flying, investigators will examine the remains of the pitot-static system and air data computer, said NTSB vehicle recorder division Branch Chief Sean Payne Friday. Evaluating the altimeters themselves and determining their independent functionality will be another piece of the puzzle. They’ll also review engineering documentation to understand how “bad data” may have affected other helicopter systems, Payne said.

Barometric altitude, which is typically the altitude the pilots would reference while they are flying, was not recorded on the flight data recorder. Normally, investigators would be able to use pressure altitude to compute the barometric altitude displayed to the pilots. Because the pressure altitude parameter is invalid, they have to use other methods to make that determination, NTSB officials said.

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from both aircraft are currently being examined in the NTSB laboratories. Investigators are also examining the wreckage to determine the exact angle of the collision, Homendy said.

The black box voice recorder from the Black Hawk helicopter was recovered on January 31 with no signs of exterior damage. The helicopter had a combined cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder.

The cockpit voice recorder of the American Airlines regional jet had sustained water intrusion, the NTSB previously reported. It was recovered on January 30 and then soaked overnight in ionized water, then put in a vacuum oven to extract moisture. The plane’s flight data recorder was found in “good condition,” according to lead investigator Todd Inman.

The NTSB also believes the helicopter crew was “likely” wearing night vision goggles while performing a check ride, or a practical exam. The Army does three types of check rides: instrument, annual and night vision goggles. This ride was a combined annual and night vision goggle check ride.

The night vision goggles could have further complicated the situation, requiring the crew to constantly be scanning left and right to get peripheral vision, Goelz said. They can also cause confusion in a crowded airspace within an urban area where there is a lot of lighting.

The NTSB is conducting a visibility study, which will laser scan models of the cockpits of both aircraft, which could help aid investigators with what pilots on the Black Hawk could see.

Homendy also addressed the Black Hawk helicopter’s equipment for tracking air traffic and the speculation surrounding it, as lawmakers gave mixed signals on whether the helicopter had it in the first place.

Civilian and military aircraft use a technology called automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), which helps an aircraft broadcast its location, altitude, and other key factors while monitoring other aircraft around it. Homendy confirmed the helicopter had the necessary equipment and was capable of transmitting, but investigators are still unclear why it was not transmitting.

“What we’ll have to look at is the installation of the equipment. We’ll have to look at programming,” Homendy said. “We’ll have to look at whether there was some sort of equipment malfunction, or if the ADS-B was turned off.”

The analysis comes about a week after the NTSB, along with the Naval Sea Systems Command Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, lifted much of the Black Hawk and other large portions of wreckage from the river.

Homendy said the agency has completed its work at the scene of the crash and is continuing its analysis of the physical evidence.

“I am 100% confident that we will get to the bottom of this,” Homendy said.

A preliminary report on the crash is expected to be released by the end of the month. Now that the NTSB has completed the on-scene phase of the investigation, the board will focus on fact-finding, Homendy said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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