Federal Aviation Administration official affirmed in testimony Thursday, the agency’s first acknowledgment of a possible error in the Reagan National Airport control tower immediately before the fatal collision.

Federal investigators revealed Wednesday that the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the deadly DCA crash may have misreported its altitude by more than 100 feet, a flaw the Army had long known about but never formally documented.

The maneuver might have taken the helicopter out of the direct path of a passenger jet as it was trying to land at Reagan Airport on Jan. 29.