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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board offered an update on their investigation into the reason for the catastrophe which happened 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 aircrafts.

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

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

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

When cops, medical or presidential transportation helicopters should utilize the area civilian aircrafts are stopped from being in the same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now suggesting that the FAA discover a ‘irreversible service’ for alternate paths for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways are in use.

Emergency units react after a passenger aircraft clashed 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 crash

It was likewise exposed on Tuesday that there was warning signs in the lead up to the lethal disaster.

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 planes getting signals about helicopters remaining in close distance between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB also said that there were 85 cases where two aircraft where laterally divided by less than 1,500 feet, and a vertical separation of less than 200 feet.

Homendy included: ‘That data from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) could have utilized that details any time to figure out that we have a trend here and a problem here, and looked at that path; that didn’t occur, 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 know. How did they not study the information to state “hello, 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 included: ‘That wasn’t done, possibly there was a concentrate on something aside from security.’

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

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Investigators believe that the helicopter associated with the crash may have had unreliable elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

The crash most likely happened at an elevation just under 300 feet, as the airplane came down toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limitation 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 safety suggestions to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its thorough examination.

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

The helicopter pilots may have likewise missed part of another interaction, when the tower stated 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 an annual test and a test on using night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

Investigators believe the team was using night vision goggles throughout the flight.

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

At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was simultaneously keeping an eye on both the helicopter and plane traffic.

Those jobs are typically handled in between 2 people from 10am up until 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New York Times.

Those jobs are typically dealt with in between two individuals from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to the report.

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

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

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

A supervisor apparently decided to combine those responsibilities before the arranged cutoff time nevertheless, and enabled one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

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

The circumstance appeared to have improved given 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 service towers is nothing brand-new, with popular causes consisting of high turnover and spending plan cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are frequently 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 extremely unusual. The release of an emergency suggestion requesting the FAA take instant action, before the conclusion of the NTSB examination is unusual.’

The two aircraft had clashed in a substantial fireball that was noticeable on dashcams of cars and trucks driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

Less than a month later, on February 17, a Delta passenger 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 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 four crew members on board.

Some 21 people were required to the health center for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually provided each person a no-strings $30,000 payout in compensation.

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

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

Medics, ambulances, and emergency lorries hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames swallowed up the aircraft and nearby cars.

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

American Airlines