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

Federal private investigators have actually raised issues of a capacity for another deadly plane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair accident earlier this year eliminated 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board offered an upgrade on their examination into the cause of the disaster which occurred on January 29 in Washington.

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

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

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

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

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

Homendy said the NTSB is now recommending that the FAA find a ‘irreversible option’ for alternate routes for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways are in use.

Emergency systems react after a passenger airplane hit 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 reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

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

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

It was revealed that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of aircrafts getting notifies 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 split by less than 1,500 feet, and a vertical separation of less than 200 feet.

Homendy included: ‘That data from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) could have used that info at any time to determine that we have a trend here and a problem here, and looked at that path; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re doing something about it today. But unfortunately, people lost lives, and enjoyed 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 information is available in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the data to say “hi, this is a location, we are having near misses and if we don’t alter our methods we are gon na lose lives”.’

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

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

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

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Investigators think that the helicopter involved in the crash may have had incorrect altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.

The crash most likely happened at an elevation just under 300 feet, as the airplane descended towards the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit for that area.

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

‘We will continue to collaborate closely with PSA Airlines as it complies as an investigative party member.’

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

The helicopter was on a ‘check’ flight that night where the pilot was undergoing an annual test and a test on utilizing night vision safety glasses, Homendy said.

Investigators believe the team was wearing 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 collision, a single air traffic controller was concurrently keeping an eye on both the helicopter and airplane traffic.

Those tasks are normally managed 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 managed in between 2 individuals from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to the report.

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

At the time of the crash, a single air traffic controller was at the same time keeping track of both the helicopter and plane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

After 9:30 pm the responsibilities are normally integrated and left to a single person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A supervisor apparently decided to combine those tasks before the scheduled cutoff time nevertheless, and enabled 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 several years, with simply 19 totally accredited controllers as of September 2023 – well listed below the target of 30 – according to the most current Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan sent to Congress.

The circumstance appeared to have actually enhanced because 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 new, with well-known causes including 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, 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 recommendation requesting the FAA take instant action, before the conclusion of the NTSB investigation is unusual.’

The 2 airplane had actually clashed in a substantial fireball that was noticeable 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, everybody on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seat belts for a number of minutes till they tentatively started evacuating.

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

Some 21 people were taken to the health center for treatment to minor injuries, and Delta has provided each person 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 lot of a suburban Pennsylvania retirement community.

Dramatic video footage showed the Beechcraft A36TC appear in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were rushed to hospital.

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

The plane took off as arranged on Sunday afternoon, but rapidly requested to land back on the tarmac since its door had opened.

American Airlines