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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an upgrade 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 released on Tuesday, investigators raised issues of more crashes involving helicopters at the airport.

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

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

When police, medical or presidential transportation helicopters should use the space civilian aircrafts are stopped from remaining in the same area.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now recommending that the FAA find a ‘permanent option’ for alternate routes for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways are in usage.

Emergency units react after a 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 press reporters about the 29 January mid-air crash

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

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

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

The NTSB also said that there were 85 cases where 2 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 info any time to identify that we have a trend here and an issue here, and looked at that route; that didn’t happen, which is why we’re taking action today. But unfortunately, people lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

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

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

Duffy would later on added when questioned by a reporter about the near misses out on that the data had ‘p *** ed him off’.

Pictured: Parts of the wreckage seen being in the Potomac River after Flight 5342 collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, eliminating 67 individuals

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Investigators think that the helicopter involved in the crash may have had inaccurate elevation readings in the minutes before the crash.

The collision most likely took place at an altitude just under 300 feet, as the airplane came down toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit for that area.

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

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

The helicopter pilots might have likewise missed part of another communication, when the tower said the jet was turning toward a different runway, Homendy said 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 goggles, Homendy stated.

Investigators believe the crew was wearing 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 accident, a single air traffic controller was at the same time monitoring both the helicopter and plane traffic.

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

Those jobs are usually handled between 2 individuals from 10am until 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video taken from inside the airport captured the moment the 2 clashed in midair

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

After 9:30 pm the tasks are usually combined and left to someone as the airport sees less traffic later on in the night.

A supervisor reportedly decided to integrate those duties before the scheduled cutoff time nevertheless, and permitted 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 numerous years, with just 19 completely licensed controllers as of September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most recent 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 service towers is absolutely nothing brand-new, with widely known causes consisting of 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 deemed the findings as ‘uncommon’.

She said: ‘This NTSB action is extremely uncommon. The release of an emergency situation suggestion requesting the FAA take instant action, before the completion of the NTSB investigation is unusual.’

The two aircraft had actually clashed in a substantial 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 February 17, a Delta guest airplane 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 numerous minutes until they tentatively began evacuating.

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

Some 21 individuals were required to the medical facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has used everyone a no-strings $30,000 payment in settlement.

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

Dramatic video footage showed the Beechcraft A36TC erupt in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were hurried to hospital.

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

The aircraft took off as set up on Sunday afternoon, but rapidly asked for to land back on the tarmac because its door had actually opened.

American Airlines