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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board offered an upgrade on their examination into the cause of the disaster 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 everyone on board both aircrafts.

As part of a preliminary report launched on Tuesday, investigators raised issues of more collisions involving helicopters at the airport.

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

Her concerns revolve around Transport Secretary Sean Duffy transferring to limit helicopter traffic around the location, however that is set to stop at the end of the month.

When cops, medical or governmental transport helicopters need to use the area civilian aircrafts are stopped from remaining in the very same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now suggesting that the FAA find a ‘irreversible option’ for alternate routes for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways are in usage.

Emergency units respond 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 speaks with press reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

It was also revealed on Tuesday that there was alerting indications in the lead up to the deadly catastrophe.

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

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

The NTSB also said that there were 85 cases where 2 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 used that information at any time to determine that we have a pattern here and an issue here, and looked at that path; that didn’t take place, which is why we’re doing something about it today. But regrettably, people lost lives, and loved ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy said: ‘I think the concern 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 hot spot, we are having near misses and if we don’t change our methods we are gon na lose lives”.’

He included: ‘That wasn’t done, possibly there was a focus on something other than safety.’

Duffy would later included 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, eliminating 67 individuals

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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 accident most likely happened at an elevation simply under 300 feet, as the aircraft descended toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limitation for that place.

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

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

The helicopter pilots may have likewise missed part of another communication, when the tower said 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 utilizing night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

Investigators think the team was wearing night vision safety glasses throughout the flight.

The Army has stated 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 all at once keeping track of both the helicopter and airplane traffic.

Those jobs are generally 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 tasks are generally managed between 2 individuals from 10am until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video footage drawn from inside the airport recorded the minute the two clashed in midair

At the time of the accident, 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 duties are usually integrated and delegated a single person as the airport sees less traffic later on in the night.

A supervisor supposedly chose to integrate those duties 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 typical for the time of day and volume of traffic’.

Reagan National has actually been understaffed for several years, with just 19 completely licensed controllers as of September 2023 – well listed below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan sent to Congress.

The circumstance appeared to have improved because 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 service towers is nothing brand-new, with widely known causes including 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 ‘unusual’.

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

The 2 aircraft had clashed in a huge 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, everybody on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for several minutes till they tentatively started leaving.

The airplane had actually 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 minor injuries, and Delta has offered each person a no-strings $30,000 payout in compensation.

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

Dramatic video showed the Beechcraft A36TC erupt in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were hurried to health center.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency lorries hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the airplane and close-by vehicles.

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

American Airlines