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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board offered 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, everybody on board both aircrafts.

As part of an initial report released on Tuesday, detectives raised concerns of more crashes involving helicopters at the airport.

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

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

When authorities, medical or governmental transportation helicopters must use the space civilian airplanes are stopped from remaining in the same area.

Homendy said the NTSB is now recommending that the FAA find a ‘permanent service’ for alternate paths for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways remain in use.

Emergency units 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 talks to press reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

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

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

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

The NTSB likewise said that there were 85 cases where 2 aircraft where laterally divided 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 used that information any time to figure out that we have a trend here and a problem here, and took a look at that path; that didn’t happen, which is why we’re taking action today. But unfortunately, 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 concern is when this data comes in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the information to state “hey, this is a location, we are having near misses out on 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 other than security.’

Duffy would later included when questioned by a press reporter about the near misses out on that the information 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, killing 67 people

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Investigators think that the helicopter included in the crash may have had unreliable altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.

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

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

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

The helicopter pilots might have also missed out on part of another interaction, when the tower stated the jet was turning towards a different runway, Homendy said 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 goggles, 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 country ´ s capital.

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

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

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

Surveillance video taken from inside the airport caught the minute the 2 collided in midair

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

After 9:30 pm the responsibilities are usually combined and delegated one person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A manager apparently decided to combine those responsibilities before the set up cutoff time however, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

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

The scenario 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 nothing brand-new, with well-known causes consisting of high turnover and budget cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are often 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 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 instant action, before the completion of the NTSB investigation is rare.’

The 2 aircraft had actually clashed in a substantial fireball that was visible on dashcams of automobiles driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

Less than a month later, on February 17, a Delta passenger plane crashed-landed upside down in disorderly scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everyone on board survived after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for a number of minutes until they tentatively started evacuating.

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

Some 21 people were required to the medical facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has used everyone 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 lot of a suburban Pennsylvania retirement home.

Dramatic video footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC appear in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were rushed to health center.

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

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

American Airlines