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

Federal private investigators have actually raised concerns of a potential for another fatal airplane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair crash earlier this year killed 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board provided an update on their investigation into the reason for the disaster which happened on January 29 in Washington.

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

As part of a preliminary report released on Tuesday, investigators raised issues of more accidents 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 moving to restrict helicopter traffic around the area, however that is set to stop at the end of the month.

When authorities, medical or presidential transportation helicopters should use the space civilian airplanes are stopped from being in the same location.

Homendy said the NTSB is now advising that the FAA discover a ‘long-term option’ for detours for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways remain in use.

Emergency units react after a passenger aircraft collided 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 speaks with reporters about the 29 January mid-air collision

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

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

It was uncovered that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of airplanes getting informs about helicopters remaining in close distance between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB also stated that there were 85 cases where two airplane where laterally divided 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) could have utilized that information whenever to determine that we have a pattern here and an issue here, and took a look at that route; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re acting today. But unfortunately, individuals lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy said: ‘I believe the concern is when this information can be found in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the data to state “hey, this is a location, we are having near misses and if we do not alter 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 press 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 clashed with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, killing 67 people

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

The crash most likely happened at an altitude simply 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 invited the report by the NTSB, saying: ‘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 coordinate carefully with PSA Airlines as it cooperates as an investigative party member.’

The helicopter pilots might have likewise missed part of another interaction, 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 going through an annual test and a test on using night vision safety glasses, Homendy said.

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 country ´ s capital.

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

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

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

Surveillance video footage drawn from inside the airport caught the moment 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 tasks are generally integrated and delegated a single person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A supervisor supposedly chose to integrate those duties before the set up cutoff time nevertheless, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

Reagan National has been understaffed for lots of years, with simply 19 totally accredited controllers since September 2023 – well listed below the target of 30 – according to the most current Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan sent to Congress.

The scenario appeared to have enhanced 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 absolutely nothing new, with widely known causes including high turnover and budget plan cuts.

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In order to fill the gaps, 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 considered the findings as ‘uncommon’.

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

The two airplane had clashed in a big 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 February 17, a Delta guest plane 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 several minutes till they tentatively began leaving.

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

Some 21 individuals were taken to the healthcare facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually offered each individual a no-strings $30,000 payment in settlement.

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

Dramatic video showed the Beechcraft A36TC appear in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were hurried to medical facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency situation cars hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames swallowed up the airplane and nearby automobiles.

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

American Airlines