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

Federal detectives have raised issues of a capacity for another fatal airplane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair accident earlier this year killed 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board provided an update on their examination into the cause of 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, eliminating everyone on board both airplanes.

As part of an initial report released on Tuesday, private investigators raised issues of more accidents involving helicopters at the airport.

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

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

When police, medical or governmental transport helicopters should use the space civilian aircrafts are stopped from being in the exact same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now suggesting that the FAA discover a ‘irreversible option’ for alternate paths for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways are in use.

Emergency systems react after a passenger aircraft 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 with reporters about the 29 January mid-air crash

It was also revealed on Tuesday that there was alerting check 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 discovered that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of airplanes getting informs about helicopters being in close proximity in between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB also stated that there were 85 cases where two airplane where laterally split 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 info at any time to determine that we have a pattern here and a problem here, and looked at that route; that didn’t take place, which is why we’re doing something about it today. But regrettably, people lost lives, and loved ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy stated: ‘I believe the question is when this information is available in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the information to say “hello, this is a location, we are having near misses and if we do not alter our methods we are gon na lose lives”.’

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

Duffy would later on 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 collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, killing 67 individuals

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Investigators believe that the helicopter associated with the crash may have had unreliable elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

The accident most likely occurred at an elevation just under 300 feet, as the plane came down towards the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limitation for that place.

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

‘We will continue to coordinate closely with PSA Airlines as it works together as an investigative party 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 safety glasses, Homendy said.

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

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

At the time of the collision, a single air traffic controller was simultaneously keeping an eye on both the helicopter and plane traffic.

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

Those jobs are usually handled in between 2 people from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance footage taken from inside the airport recorded the minute the two collided 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 airplane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

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

A supervisor apparently decided to integrate those duties before the scheduled cutoff time however, and permitted one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

Reagan National has actually been understaffed for several years, with simply 19 completely certified controllers as of September 2023 – well listed below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

The circumstance appeared to have enhanced 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 towers is absolutely nothing new, with popular causes including high turnover and spending plan cuts.

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In order to fill the gaps, controllers are often 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 stated: ‘This NTSB action is extremely unusual. The release of an emergency situation suggestion asking for the FAA take instant action, before the conclusion of the NTSB examination is uncommon.’

The 2 aircraft had actually collided in a substantial 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 traveler airplane 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 till they tentatively started evacuating.

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

Some 21 individuals were required to the healthcare facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has used everyone a no-strings $30,000 payout 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 home.

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

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

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

American Airlines