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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an upgrade on their investigation into the reason for 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 airplanes.

As part of an initial report launched on Tuesday, private investigators raised issues of more accidents including helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said: ‘We remain worried 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 location, but that is set to stop at the end of the month.

When police, medical or presidential transport helicopters should utilize the area civilian airplanes are stopped from being in the same area.

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

Emergency systems respond 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 to press reporters about the 29 January mid-air collision

It was likewise exposed on Tuesday that there was cautioning check in the lead up to the deadly disaster.

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

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

The NTSB likewise stated 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 data from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) could have used that info whenever to figure out 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 doing something about it today. But regrettably, people lost lives, and enjoyed 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 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 do not alter our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

He added: ‘That wasn’t done, maybe there was a concentrate on something besides 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 hit an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, killing 67 individuals

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

The crash likely occurred at an altitude just under 300 feet, as the airplane descended toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit 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 safety recommendations to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its thorough examination.

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

The helicopter pilots may have also missed part of another interaction, when the tower said the jet was turning towards a various 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 safety glasses, Homendy said.

Investigators believe 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 country ´ s capital.

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

Those jobs are typically handled 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 normally managed between 2 individuals 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 collision, a single air traffic controller was all at once keeping track of both the helicopter and plane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

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

A manager supposedly decided to combine those duties before the arranged cutoff time however, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

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

The circumstance appeared to have actually enhanced considering that 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 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 highly uncommon. The release of an emergency suggestion requesting the FAA take instant action, before the completion of the NTSB examination is unusual.’

The 2 airplane had actually collided in a substantial fireball that showed up on dashcams of cars 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, everybody on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for a number of minutes until they tentatively started leaving.

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

Some 21 people were required to the healthcare facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually used each person a no-strings $30,000 payment in compensation.

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

Dramatic footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC erupt in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were rushed to medical facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency lorries hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the aircraft and neighboring vehicles.

The airplane took off as set up on Sunday afternoon, however rapidly asked for to land back on the tarmac due to the fact that its door had actually opened.

American Airlines