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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Homendy stated the NTSB is now advising that the FAA discover a ‘long-term service’ for alternate routes for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways remain in use.

Emergency systems react after a traveler 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 with reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

It was likewise revealed on Tuesday that there was warning check in the lead up to the deadly disaster.

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

It was uncovered that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of airplanes getting informs about helicopters being in close distance 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 included: ‘That data from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) might have used that information at any time to figure out that we have a trend here and an issue here, and took a look at that route; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re taking action today. But sadly, people lost lives, and enjoyed ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy stated: ‘I believe the question is when this data is available in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the data to say “hello, this is a hot area, we are having near misses out on and if we don’t change our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

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

Duffy would later on included when questioned by a reporter about the near misses that the data 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, killing 67 individuals

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Investigators think that the helicopter involved in the crash might have had unreliable elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

The accident likely took place at an altitude just under 300 feet, as the airplane came down 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 security suggestions to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its comprehensive examination.

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

The may have also missed part of another communication, when the tower stated 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 an annual test and a test on utilizing night vision goggles, Homendy said.

Investigators believe the team was wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight.

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

At the time of the crash, a single air traffic controller was simultaneously keeping track of both the helicopter and aircraft traffic.

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

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

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

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

After 9:30 pm the tasks are typically combined and left to a single person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A manager reportedly chose to integrate those duties 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 regular for the time of day and volume of traffic’.

Reagan National has actually been understaffed for numerous years, with just 19 completely 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 situation appeared to have actually 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 absolutely nothing new, with widely known causes consisting of high turnover and budget cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are regularly 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 highly unusual. The release of an emergency situation recommendation asking for the FAA take immediate action, before the conclusion of the NTSB investigation is rare.’

The two aircraft had actually collided in a big 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 chaotic scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everyone on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for a number of minutes until they tentatively began 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 medical facility for treatment to minor injuries, and Delta has actually offered each individual a no-strings $30,000 payout in compensation.

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

Dramatic video footage showed the Beechcraft A36TC erupt in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were rushed to healthcare facility.

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

The plane took off as set up on Sunday afternoon, however rapidly asked for to land back on the tarmac since its door had actually opened.

American Airlines