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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board provided an upgrade on their investigation into the cause of the catastrophe 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, eliminating everybody on board both airplanes.

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

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

Her issues revolve around Transport Secretary Sean Duffy relocating to restrict helicopter traffic around the location, but that is set to stop at the end of the month.

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

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

Emergency units react after a guest aircraft 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 press reporters about the 29 January mid-air collision

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

The NTSB also said 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 information from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) might have used that info at any time 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 acting today. But sadly, people lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy said: ‘I think the question is when this data is available in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the data to state « hi, this is a location, we are having near misses out on and if we don’t change our ways we are gon na lose lives ».’

He included: ‘That wasn’t done, perhaps there was a concentrate on something other than security.’

Duffy would later added when questioned by a reporter about the near misses that the information 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, eliminating 67 individuals

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

The accident most 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 area.

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

‘We will continue to collaborate carefully with PSA Airlines as it works together as an investigative party member.’

The helicopter pilots might have also missed part of another interaction, 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 going through a yearly test and a test on utilizing night vision goggles, Homendy said.

Investigators believe the crew was wearing night vision goggles 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 all at once keeping an eye on both the helicopter and aircraft traffic.

Those tasks are generally dealt with in between two people from 10am up until 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New York Times.

Those jobs are typically managed in between two people from 10am till 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 concurrently monitoring both the helicopter and airplane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

After 9:30 pm the duties are generally integrated and delegated one person as the airport sees less traffic later on in the night.

A manager reportedly chose to combine those tasks before the set up cutoff time however, and permitted one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

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

The circumstance 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 towers is nothing new, with widely known causes consisting of high turnover and budget cuts.

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In order to fill the gaps, 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 highly unusual. The release of an emergency suggestion asking for the FAA take instant action, before the completion of the NTSB investigation is unusual.’

The two aircraft had collided in a substantial fireball that showed up on dashcams of vehicles driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

Less than a month later, on February 17, a Delta traveler 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 seat belts for numerous minutes up until they tentatively began evacuating.

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

Some 21 individuals were taken to the health center for treatment to minor injuries, and Delta has provided each individual a no-strings $30,000 payout in compensation.

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

Dramatic video revealed the Beechcraft A36TC erupt in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were hurried to hospital.

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

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

American Airlines