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

Federal private investigators have actually raised concerns of a capacity for another fatal aircraft crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair collision earlier this year killed 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an upgrade on their investigation into the reason for the disaster which occurred on January 29 in Washington.

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

As part of a preliminary report released on Tuesday, investigators raised issues of more accidents involving helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said: ‘We remain worried about the substantial potential for future mid-air accident at DCA.’

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

When authorities, medical or presidential transportation helicopters should use the area civilian airplanes are stopped from being in the same area.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now advising that the FAA find a ‘long-term service’ for detours for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways are in usage.

Emergency units respond after a passenger airplane 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 collision

It was also revealed on Tuesday that there was warning 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 discovered that 15,214 ‘near-miss events’ of planes getting alerts about helicopters being in close proximity in between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB likewise said 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 included: ‘That information from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) could have used that info any time to identify that we have a pattern here and an issue here, and took a look at that path; that didn’t take place, which is why we’re acting today. But sadly, individuals lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy stated: ‘I believe the concern is when this data can be found in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the data to state “hey, this is a hot area, we are having near misses and if we do not change our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

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

Duffy would later included when questioned by a press reporter about the near misses out on that the information 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 may have had inaccurate elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

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

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

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

The helicopter pilots might have also missed out on part of another communication, when the tower said 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 crew was wearing night vision safety glasses throughout the flight.

The Army has said the Black Hawk crew was extremely experienced, and accustomed to the crowded 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 aircraft traffic.

Those tasks are typically dealt with in between 2 people from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New york city Times.

Those tasks are usually dealt with in between two individuals from 10am until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

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

At the time of the collision, 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 responsibilities are usually combined and left to one person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A manager apparently decided to combine those duties before the set up cutoff time however, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

Reagan National has actually been understaffed for numerous years, with simply 19 completely accredited controllers since September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most current Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

The scenario appeared to have improved 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 towers is nothing brand-new, with widely known causes including high turnover and budget cuts.

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

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

She stated: ‘This NTSB action is extremely uncommon. The release of an emergency situation suggestion requesting the FAA take immediate action, before the completion of the NTSB investigation is unusual.’

The 2 aircraft had actually collided in a huge fireball that showed up on dashcams of cars and trucks driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

Less than a month later on, on February 17, a Delta traveler aircraft 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 seat belts for a number of minutes until they tentatively started leaving.

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

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

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

Dramatic footage showed the Beechcraft A36TC emerge in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were rushed to healthcare facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency situation automobiles hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the plane and neighboring automobiles.

The plane took off as set up on Sunday afternoon, however rapidly requested to land back on the tarmac because its door had opened.

American Airlines