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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board provided an upgrade 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 clashed in midair over the Potomac River, eliminating everybody on board both aircrafts.

As part of an initial report launched on Tuesday, investigators raised issues of more collisions including helicopters at the airport.

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

Her issues revolve around Transport Secretary Sean Duffy transferring to restrict helicopter traffic around the location, but that is set to cease at the end of the month.

When authorities, medical or governmental transport helicopters need to utilize the space civilian aircrafts are stopped from remaining in the same location.

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

Emergency systems respond after a traveler aircraft collided 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 reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

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

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

It was discovered that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of planes getting informs 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 information at any time to determine that we have a pattern here and an issue here, and looked at that path; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re doing something about it today. But unfortunately, people lost lives, and enjoyed ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy said: ‘I believe the concern is when this data comes in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the information to say «hi, this is a location, we are having near misses 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 included when questioned by a reporter about the near misses 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 individuals

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Investigators think that the helicopter associated with the crash might have had incorrect altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.

The crash most likely occurred at an elevation just under 300 feet, as the plane descended toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limitation for that location.

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

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

The helicopter pilots may have also 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 undergoing a yearly test and a test on using night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

Investigators believe the team was wearing 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 concurrently monitoring both the helicopter and aircraft traffic.

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

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

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

At the time of the crash, 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 tasks are normally combined and delegated someone as the airport sees less traffic later on in the night.

A manager reportedly decided to integrate those duties before the set up cutoff time nevertheless, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

Reagan National has been understaffed for numerous years, with simply 19 fully licensed controllers as of September 2023 — well listed below the target of 30 — according to the most current Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan sent to Congress.

The circumstance appeared to have enhanced considering that then, as a source informed 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 new, with popular causes consisting of high turnover and budget plan cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are frequently 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 unusual. The release of an emergency suggestion asking for the FAA take immediate action, before the completion of the NTSB examination is unusual.’

The 2 airplane had actually clashed in a huge fireball that showed up 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, on February 17, a Delta passenger aircraft crashed-landed upside down in chaotic scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

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

The airplane had been heading to Toronto from Minneapolis — Saint Paul International Airport with 76 guests and four crew members on board.

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

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

Dramatic video footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC appear in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were hurried to medical facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency situation lorries hurried to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the airplane and neighboring lorries.

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

American Airlines