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

Federal private investigators have raised issues of a capacity for another fatal aircraft crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair collision earlier this year eliminated 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an update 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 clashed in midair over the Potomac River, eliminating everybody on board both aircrafts.

As part of a preliminary report launched on Tuesday, investigators raised issues of more crashes involving helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy stated: ‘We stay concerned about the considerable potential for future mid-air crash at DCA.’

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

When police, medical or presidential transportation helicopters should utilize the space civilian planes are stopped from remaining in the very same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now advising that the FAA discover a ‘irreversible service’ for alternate paths for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways are in usage.

Emergency systems react after a traveler 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 to press reporters about the 29 January mid-air collision

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

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 airplanes getting alerts about helicopters remaining in close proximity in between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB also stated that there were 85 cases where two aircraft where laterally split by less than 1,500 feet, and a vertical separation of less than 200 feet.

included: ‘That data 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 occur, 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 press conference on Tuesday.

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

He added: ‘That wasn’t done, maybe 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 data had ‘p *** ed him off’.

Pictured: Parts of the wreckage seen sitting in the Potomac River after Flight 5342 clashed with an Army Black 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 likely occurred at an altitude just under 300 feet, as the plane came down toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit for that area.

On Tuesday American Airlines welcomed the report by the NTSB, stating: ‘We’re grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board’s immediate safety suggestions to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its thorough investigation.

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

The helicopter pilots may have likewise missed out on part of another communication, when the tower said 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 going through an annual test and a test on using night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

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

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

At the time of the crash, a single air traffic controller was at the same time monitoring both the helicopter and aircraft traffic.

Those tasks are usually handled in between two people from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New york city Times.

Those tasks are generally dealt with in between two individuals from 10am up until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video footage drawn from inside the airport captured the moment the 2 collided in midair

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

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

A supervisor apparently chose to combine those tasks before the scheduled 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 lots of years, with just 19 fully accredited controllers since September 2023 – well 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 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 brand-new, with widely known causes consisting of high turnover and budget plan cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are frequently asked to work 10-hour days, 6 days a week.

After the release of the report, previous Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo considered the findings as ‘unusual’.

She stated: ‘This NTSB action is extremely uncommon. The release of an emergency recommendation asking for the FAA take instant action, before the completion of the NTSB examination is uncommon.’

The two airplane had actually collided in a substantial 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 traveler airplane crashed-landed upside down in disorderly 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 leaving.

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

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

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

Dramatic footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC emerge in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were hurried to health center.

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

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

American Airlines