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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an update on their examination into the cause of the catastrophe 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 an initial report released on Tuesday, detectives raised concerns of more collisions involving helicopters at the airport.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy stated: ‘We stay concerned about the considerable potential for future mid-air collision at DCA.’

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

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

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

Emergency systems react after a guest 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 accident

It was likewise exposed on Tuesday that there was warning indications 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 revealed that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of planes getting notifies about helicopters remaining in close proximity in between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB likewise 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 included: ‘That data from October 2021 through December 2024, (the FAA) could have utilized that info whenever to determine that we have a pattern here and an issue here, and took a look at that path; that didn’t happen, 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 interview on Tuesday.

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

He added: ‘That wasn’t done, possibly there was a concentrate on something aside from safety.’

Duffy would later included when questioned by a 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 hit an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, eliminating 67 individuals

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

The crash likely took place at an elevation simply under 300 feet, as the aircraft came down toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limitation for that location.

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

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

The helicopter pilots might have also missed out on part of another communication, when the tower said the jet was turning towards a different 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 utilizing night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

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

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

At the time of the crash, a single air traffic controller was concurrently monitoring both the helicopter and aircraft traffic.

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

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

Surveillance video drawn from inside the airport caught the moment the 2 collided in midair

At the time of the collision, a single air traffic controller was simultaneously monitoring both the helicopter and airplane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

After 9:30 pm the duties are normally and delegated a single person as the airport sees less traffic later on in the night.

A manager apparently chose to combine those responsibilities before the arranged cutoff time however, and allowed 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 lots of years, with just 19 fully certified controllers since September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most current Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

The scenario appeared to have improved ever since, 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 widely known causes consisting of high turnover and budget cuts.

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In order to fill the spaces, controllers are often 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 suggestion requesting the FAA take immediate action, before the conclusion of the NTSB examination is unusual.’

The two aircraft had clashed in a huge fireball that was visible 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 guest plane crashed-landed upside down in chaotic scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everybody on board survived after being suspended upside-down by their seat belts for several minutes until they tentatively began leaving.

The aircraft had actually been heading to Toronto from Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Airport with 76 travelers and 4 crew members on board.

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

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

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

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

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

American Airlines