In Washington on Wednesday,the National Transportation Safety Board held the first of three days of hearings into the deadly midair collision in January near Washington Reagan National Airport.

In all, 67 people were killed when an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter collided near DCA. It was the nation's deadliest plane crash in more than 20 years.

In hours of technical questions, NTSB members focused their inquiry on the military helicopter involved in the collision.

They want to learn more about the exact placement of certain flight instruments within the helicopter itself, like the altimeters that tell pilots what altitude they are flying at.

It comes after investigators had already identified 85 near misses around Washington Reagan National Airport, and found that mi

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