Crash Warning as Report into DC Disaster at Reagan Airport Is Released

Federal private investigators have raised issues of a potential for another fatal airplane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair collision previously this year killed 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an upgrade on their investigation into the cause of the catastrophe which occurred on January 29 in Washington.

An American Airlines jetliner and a Black Hawk military helicopter clashed in midair over the Potomac River, eliminating everyone on board both airplanes.

As part of a preliminary report launched on Tuesday, investigators raised concerns of more collisions involving helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said: ‘We remain worried about the considerable capacity for future mid-air collision at DCA.’

Her concerns focus on Transport Secretary Sean Duffy relocating to restrict helicopter traffic around the location, however that is set to cease at the end of the month.

When police, medical or governmental transportation helicopters should utilize the space civilian planes are stopped from being in the same area.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now suggesting that the FAA find a ‘irreversible service’ for detours for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways are in usage.

Emergency units react after a traveler aircraft clashed with a helicopter in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia

Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) Jennifer Homendy talks to reporters about the 29 January mid-air crash

It was also exposed on Tuesday that there was alerting check in the lead up to the fatal catastrophe.

Those probing the crash went through 944,179 operations between October 2021 and December 2024.

It was uncovered that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of airplanes getting alerts about helicopters remaining in close proximity in between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB also stated that there were 85 cases where 2 aircraft where laterally divided by less than 1,500 feet, and a vertical separation of less than 200 feet.

Homendy added: ‘That information from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) could have utilized that information at any time to identify that we have a pattern here and a problem here, and took a look at that path; that didn’t take place, which is why we’re taking action today. But regrettably, people lost lives, and enjoyed ones are grieving.’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy these findings at a later press conference on Tuesday.

Duffy stated: ‘I think the question is when this data is available in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the data to state “hello, this is a location, we are having near misses and if we don’t change our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

He added: ‘That wasn’t done, maybe there was a concentrate on something aside from security.’

Duffy would later included when questioned by a reporter about the near misses that the data had ‘p *** ed him off’.

Pictured: Parts of the wreckage seen sitting in the Potomac River after Flight 5342 hit an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, killing 67 people

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Investigators think that the helicopter associated with the crash might have had inaccurate elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

The collision likely occurred at an elevation simply under 300 feet, as the plane came down toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit for that place.

On Tuesday American Airlines invited the report by the NTSB, saying: ‘We’re grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board’s immediate safety suggestions to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its extensive investigation.

‘We will continue to coordinate carefully with PSA Airlines as it complies as an investigative celebration member.’

The helicopter pilots might have likewise missed out on part of another communication, when the tower stated the jet was turning toward a different runway, Homendy stated last month.

The helicopter was on a ‘check’ flight that night where the pilot was undergoing a yearly test and a test on using night vision goggles, Homendy stated.

Investigators think the team was using night vision goggles throughout the flight.

The Army has stated the Black Hawk crew was extremely experienced, and accustomed to the congested skies around the country ´ s capital.

At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was concurrently keeping track of both the helicopter and plane traffic.

Those jobs are typically handled in between two individuals from 10am up until 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New york city Times.

Those jobs are generally handled in between 2 individuals from 10am until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video footage drawn from inside the airport caught the moment the two clashed in midair

At the time of the collision, a single air traffic controller was simultaneously monitoring both the helicopter and plane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

After 9:30 pm the duties are usually integrated and left to someone as the airport sees less traffic later on in the night.

A supervisor reportedly chose to integrate those tasks before the set up cutoff time however, and enabled one air traffic controller to leave work early.

The FAA report stated that staffing configuration ‘was not typical for the time of day and volume of traffic’.

Reagan National has actually been understaffed for many years, with simply 19 totally accredited controllers since September 2023 – well listed below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan sent to Congress.

The scenario appeared to have improved since then, as a source informed CNN the Reagan National control tower was 85 percent staffed with 24 of 28 positions filled.

Chronic understaffing at air traffic control service towers is absolutely nothing brand-new, with widely known causes including high turnover and budget plan cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are regularly asked to work 10-hour days, 6 days a week.

After the release of the report, former Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo considered the findings as ‘unusual’.

She stated: ‘This NTSB action is highly uncommon. The release of an emergency recommendation requesting the FAA take instant action, before the completion of the NTSB examination is unusual.’

The two aircraft had actually collided in a huge fireball that showed up on dashcams of automobiles driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

Less than a month later on, on February 17, a Delta guest plane crashed-landed upside down in disorderly scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everyone on board endured after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for a number of minutes till they tentatively started evacuating.

The aircraft had been heading to Toronto from Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Airport with 76 passengers and 4 team members on board.

Some 21 individuals were taken to the medical facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has used each person a no-strings $30,000 payment in settlement.

And the plane carnage is continuous – on Sunday, yet another jet crash-landed, this time in a parking area of a rural Pennsylvania retirement home.

Dramatic video footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC appear in flames in the parking area of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were rushed to medical facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency automobiles rushed to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the aircraft and neighboring lorries.

The aircraft took off as set up on Sunday afternoon, but quickly requested to land back on the tarmac since its door had actually opened.

American Airlines