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

Federal detectives have actually raised concerns of a potential for another deadly plane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair accident earlier this year killed 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board provided an update on their examination into the cause of the catastrophe which occurred 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 launched on Tuesday, private investigators raised issues of more accidents 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 concerns revolve around Transport Secretary Sean Duffy transferring to limit helicopter traffic around the area, but that is set to stop at the end of the month.

When cops, medical or governmental transportation helicopters must utilize the area civilian aircrafts are stopped from remaining in the very same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now advising that the FAA find a ‘permanent service’ for detours for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways remain in use.

Emergency units respond after a traveler 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 talks to reporters about the 29 January mid-air crash

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

The NTSB likewise 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 added: ‘That information from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) might have utilized that info at any time to identify that we have a pattern here and a problem here, and took a look at that path; that didn’t happen, which is why we’re acting today. But sadly, individuals 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 concern is when this data can be found in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the data to say “hello, this is a location, we are having near misses and if we do not alter our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

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

Duffy would later on included when questioned by a 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 collided 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 may have had unreliable altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.

The crash most likely took place at an elevation just under 300 feet, as the plane 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, saying: ‘We’re grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board’s urgent safety recommendations to limit 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 helicopter pilots may have also missed out on part of another communication, when the tower said the jet was turning toward a various runway, Homendy stated last month.

The helicopter was on a ‘check’ flight that night where the pilot was undergoing a yearly test and a test on utilizing night vision goggles, Homendy said.

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

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

At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was at the same time keeping track of both the helicopter and plane traffic.

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

Those tasks are normally dealt with in between 2 individuals from 10am up until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video taken from inside the airport recorded the moment the 2 collided in midair

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

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

A supervisor apparently decided to combine those duties before the arranged cutoff time however, 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 several years, with simply 19 completely 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 situation appeared to have actually enhanced since then, 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 new, with popular 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, former Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo considered the findings as ‘uncommon’.

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

The two aircraft had clashed in a huge fireball that showed up on dashcams of automobiles driving on that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

Less than a month later, on February 17, a Delta guest aircraft 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 seatbelts for numerous minutes up until they tentatively began leaving.

The airplane had been heading to Toronto from Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Airport with 76 guests and four crew members on board.

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

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

Dramatic video footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC emerge in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were rushed to medical facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency situation cars hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the plane and neighboring lorries.

The aircraft took off as scheduled on Sunday afternoon, but quickly asked for to land back on the tarmac because its door had opened.

American Airlines