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

Federal private investigators have actually raised issues of a potential for another lethal plane crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair accident earlier this year eliminated 67.

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an update on their examination into the reason for the catastrophe which took place on January 29 in Washington.

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

As part of an initial report released on Tuesday, detectives raised concerns of more collisions including helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said: ‘We remain worried about the substantial capacity for future mid-air crash at DCA.’

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

When authorities, medical or presidential transportation helicopters should utilize the area civilian airplanes are stopped from being in the exact same area.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now recommending that the FAA find a ‘irreversible option’ for detours for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways are in use.

Emergency systems respond after a airplane 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 talks to reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

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

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

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

The NTSB also said that there were 85 cases where 2 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) could have utilized that info at any time to determine that we have a pattern here and a problem here, and looked at that route; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re doing something about it today. But sadly, individuals lost lives, and loved ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy stated: ‘I think the concern is when this information is available in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the information to say “hello, this is a location, we are having near misses and if we do not change our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

He added: ‘That wasn’t done, maybe there was a focus on something besides safety.’

Duffy would later on added 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 hit an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, killing 67 people

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Investigators believe that the helicopter included in the crash may have had incorrect altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.

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

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 extensive investigation.

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

The helicopter pilots might have also missed out on part of another communication, when the tower stated the jet was turning towards a various runway, Homendy stated 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 said.

Investigators think the crew was using night vision goggles throughout the flight.

The Army has said the Black Hawk team 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 all at once keeping an eye on both the helicopter and plane traffic.

Those tasks are typically dealt with between 2 individuals from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New York Times.

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

Surveillance video taken from inside the airport recorded the minute the 2 clashed in midair

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

After 9:30 pm the responsibilities are usually integrated and delegated a single person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A manager apparently chose to integrate those duties before the scheduled cutoff time however, and permitted one air traffic controller to leave work early.

The FAA report stated 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 totally certified controllers since September 2023 – well listed 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 ever since, 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 new, with popular causes including high turnover and budget cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are regularly 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 considered the findings as ‘uncommon’.

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

The two aircraft had clashed 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 February 17, a Delta traveler plane crashed-landed upside down in chaotic scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everybody on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seat belts for a number of minutes up until they tentatively began evacuating.

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

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

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

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

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

The aircraft took off as arranged on Sunday afternoon, however quickly requested to land back on the tarmac because its door had opened.

American Airlines