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

Federal detectives have raised concerns of a potential for another lethal plane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair crash previously this year eliminated 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board offered an upgrade on their investigation into the reason for the catastrophe which happened 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 an initial report released on Tuesday, detectives raised issues of more collisions including helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said: ‘We stay concerned about the substantial capacity for future mid-air collision at DCA.’

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

When police, medical or governmental transport helicopters need to utilize the space civilian airplanes are stopped from being in the same location.

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

Emergency units react after a traveler 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 accident

It was also revealed on Tuesday that there was cautioning check in the lead up to the fatal disaster.

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

It was uncovered that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of aircrafts 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 added: ‘That information from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) might have utilized that info whenever to determine that we have a pattern here and a problem here, and took a look at that route; that didn’t take place, which is why we’re taking action today. But sadly, people lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy stated: ‘I believe the question is when this data comes in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the information to say “hey, this is a location, we are having near misses out on and if we don’t change our methods we are gon na lose lives”.’

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

Duffy would later on added 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 Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, eliminating 67 individuals

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

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

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

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

The helicopter pilots may have also missed part of another communication, 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 utilizing night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

Investigators believe the team was using 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 country ´ s capital.

At the time of the collision, a single air traffic controller was all at once monitoring both the helicopter and aircraft traffic.

Those tasks are typically handled between 2 individuals from 10am until 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New york city Times.

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

Surveillance footage drawn from inside the airport recorded the minute the two clashed in midair

At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was simultaneously keeping an eye on both the helicopter and plane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

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

A supervisor apparently chose to combine those duties before the set up cutoff time nevertheless, and enabled one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

Reagan National has actually been understaffed for several 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 circumstance appeared to have improved ever since, 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 nothing new, with widely known causes consisting of high turnover and spending 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 deemed the findings as ‘unusual’.

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

The 2 aircraft had collided in a huge fireball that was visible 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 guest plane crashed-landed upside down in chaotic scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everybody on board endured after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for a number of minutes up until they tentatively began leaving.

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 people were taken to the health center for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually provided everyone a no-strings $30,000 payout in compensation.

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

Dramatic video revealed the Beechcraft A36TC erupt in flames in the parking area of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were rushed to health center.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency cars hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the airplane and close-by automobiles.

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

American Airlines