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

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

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

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

As part of an initial report released on Tuesday, private investigators raised concerns of more accidents involving helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy stated: ‘We stay worried about the significant potential for future mid-air collision at DCA.’

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

When authorities, medical or presidential transport helicopters need to utilize the area civilian airplanes are stopped from being in the exact same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now recommending that the FAA find a ‘permanent solution’ for detours for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways remain in usage.

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

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

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

It was revealed that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of planes getting notifies about helicopters being in close proximity in between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB also said 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 information from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) might have utilized that info whenever to determine that we have a trend here and a problem here, and took a look at that path; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re acting today. But unfortunately, people lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy stated: ‘I believe the question is when this information comes in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the information to state “hi, this is a hot area, we are having near misses and if we don’t alter our methods we are gon na lose lives”.’

He added: ‘That wasn’t done, perhaps there was a focus on something aside from safety.’

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 being in the Potomac River after Flight 5342 hit an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, killing 67 people

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Investigators believe that the helicopter associated with the crash may have had unreliable 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 area.

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

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

The helicopter pilots may have likewise 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 going through a yearly test and a test on using night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

Investigators believe the crew was wearing night vision safety glasses throughout the flight.

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

At the time of the crash, a single air traffic controller was all at once keeping an eye on both the helicopter and plane traffic.

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

Those jobs are normally managed in between two individuals from 10am up until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video taken from inside the airport captured the minute the two clashed in midair

At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was at the same time monitoring both the helicopter and airplane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

After 9:30 pm the duties are generally integrated and left to a single person as the airport sees less traffic later on in the night.

A manager reportedly decided to integrate those duties before the scheduled cutoff time however, and permitted 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 numerous years, with just 19 completely certified controllers since September 2023 – well listed below the target of 30 – according to the most current Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

The circumstance appeared to have improved considering that then, 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 popular causes consisting of high turnover and budget plan cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are often asked to work 10-hour days, six 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 said: ‘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 airplane had actually clashed in a big fireball that was noticeable 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 traveler plane crashed-landed upside down in disorderly scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everyone on board endured after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for numerous minutes till they tentatively began leaving.

The airplane 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 required to the hospital for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually offered each individual a no-strings $30,000 payment in compensation.

And the airplane 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 emerge in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were hurried to hospital.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency situation cars rushed to the scene in Lancaster County as flames swallowed up the plane and close-by cars.

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

American Airlines