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

Federal private investigators have raised issues of a potential for another deadly 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, killing everyone on board both airplanes.

As part of a preliminary report launched on Tuesday, detectives raised issues 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 relocating to restrict helicopter traffic around the location, however that is set to cease at the end of the month.

When cops, medical or governmental transport helicopters must utilize the space civilian airplanes are stopped from remaining in the same area.

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

Emergency units respond after a passenger airplane 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 to reporters about the 29 January mid-air collision

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

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

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

The NTSB likewise stated that there were 85 cases where two aircraft where laterally split 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 information whenever to identify that we have a trend here and a problem here, and looked at that path; that didn’t happen, which is why we’re doing something about it today. But regrettably, individuals lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy said: ‘I think the concern is when this information comes in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the data to state “hey, this is a hot spot, we are having near misses and if we don’t alter our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’

He added: ‘That wasn’t done, perhaps there was a concentrate on something other than security.’

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 think that the helicopter associated with the crash may have had incorrect elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

The accident likely occurred at an elevation simply under 300 feet, as the aircraft came down towards the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit for that place.

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

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

The helicopter pilots may have likewise missed out on 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 goggles, Homendy stated.

Investigators believe the crew was using night vision safety glasses 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 crash, a single air traffic controller was at the same time monitoring both the helicopter and airplane traffic.

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

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

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

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

After 9:30 pm the responsibilities are typically integrated and delegated someone as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A manager supposedly decided to combine those tasks before the scheduled cutoff time however, and enabled one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

Reagan National has actually been understaffed for many years, with simply 19 fully accredited controllers as of September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most current Air Controller Workforce Plan sent to Congress.

The scenario appeared to have actually enhanced 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 service towers is absolutely nothing new, with widely known causes including high turnover and budget plan cuts.

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In order to fill the gaps, 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 deemed the findings as ‘uncommon’.

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 examination is rare.’

The 2 airplane had actually collided in a huge fireball that was visible 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 disorderly scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everyone on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for several minutes till they tentatively began evacuating.

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

Some 21 individuals were taken to the medical facility for treatment to minor injuries, and Delta has offered each individual a no-strings $30,000 payment in compensation.

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

Dramatic video footage showed the Beechcraft A36TC emerge in flames in the parking area of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were rushed to health center.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency automobiles rushed to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the plane and nearby vehicles.

The aircraft took off as scheduled on Sunday afternoon, but rapidly requested to land back on the tarmac due to the fact that its door had opened.

American Airlines