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

Federal investigators have actually raised concerns of a potential for another fatal plane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair accident previously this year killed 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board offered an update on their investigation into the reason for the catastrophe which took place on January 29 in Washington.

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

As part of a preliminary report released on Tuesday, private investigators raised issues of more crashes including helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy stated: ‘We stay concerned about the significant capacity for future mid-air crash at DCA.’

Her issues focus on Transport Secretary Sean Duffy relocating to limit helicopter traffic around the location, but that is set to stop at the end of the month.

When authorities, medical or presidential transportation helicopters must use the space civilian planes are stopped from remaining in the very same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now recommending that the FAA find a ‘long-term service’ for alternate paths for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways are in usage.

Emergency units respond after a passenger aircraft collided 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 speaks to press reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

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

Those penetrating 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 signals about helicopters being in close proximity in between October 2021 and December 2024.

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

Homendy included: ‘That information from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) might have utilized that details any time to figure out 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 doing something about it today. But sadly, individuals lost lives, and loved ones are grieving.’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy slammed 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 “hey, this is a hot spot, we are having near misses out on and if we don’t change our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

He included: ‘That wasn’t done, maybe there was a concentrate on something besides safety.’

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

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

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Investigators think that the helicopter included in the crash may have had inaccurate elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

The accident most likely took place at an altitude just under 300 feet, as the aircraft descended toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit for that location.

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

‘We will continue to collaborate carefully with PSA Airlines as it cooperates as an member.’

The helicopter pilots might have also missed out on part of another interaction, when the tower said the jet was turning toward a different runway, Homendy said 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 safety glasses, Homendy said.

Investigators believe the crew was wearing night vision safety glasses throughout the flight.

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

At the time of the collision, a single air traffic controller was all at once keeping track of both the helicopter and airplane traffic.

Those tasks are typically handled in between 2 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 managed in between 2 people from 10am until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video footage drawn from inside the airport caught the minute the two collided in midair

At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was all at once monitoring both the helicopter and airplane 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 manager supposedly decided to integrate those responsibilities before the arranged 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 numerous years, with just 19 fully accredited controllers as of 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 enhanced considering that then, as a source told 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 well-known causes consisting of high turnover and budget plan cuts.

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In order to fill the gaps, controllers are frequently 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 ‘uncommon’.

She stated: ‘This NTSB action is extremely unusual. The release of an emergency suggestion asking for the FAA take instant action, before the completion of the NTSB investigation is unusual.’

The 2 airplane had collided in a substantial fireball that showed up on dashcams of vehicles driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

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

Miraculously, everybody on board endured after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for several minutes until they tentatively began evacuating.

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

Some 21 individuals were required to the hospital for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually used each individual a no-strings $30,000 payment in payment.

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

Dramatic video showed the Beechcraft A36TC emerge in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were rushed to medical facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency situation vehicles hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames swallowed up the aircraft and neighboring cars.

The plane took off as arranged on Sunday afternoon, but quickly requested to land back on the tarmac due to the fact that its door had opened.

American Airlines