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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board offered an update on their investigation into the reason for the disaster 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 airplanes.

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

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

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

When authorities, medical or governmental transport helicopters should utilize the space civilian airplanes are stopped from being in the very same location.

Homendy stated the NTSB is now suggesting that the FAA find a ‘long-term service’ for alternate routes for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways are in usage.

Emergency units respond 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 talks to press reporters about the 29 January mid-air collision

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

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

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

The NTSB likewise stated 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 details at any time to identify that we have a trend here and an issue here, and took a look at that route; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re acting today. But sadly, individuals lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy said: ‘I believe the concern is when this data can be found in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the information to state “hey, this is a hot area, 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 besides security.’

Duffy would later on added 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 people

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Investigators think that the helicopter included in the crash might have had unreliable altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.

The collision likely occurred at an altitude simply under 300 feet, as the aircraft came down toward the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limit for that area.

On Tuesday invited the report by the NTSB, stating: ‘We’re grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board’s immediate safety suggestions 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 communication, when the tower stated the jet was turning toward a various runway, Homendy said 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 stated.

Investigators believe the team was using night vision safety glasses throughout the flight.

The Army has said the Black Hawk team was highly experienced, and accustomed to the crowded skies around the country ´ s capital.

At the time of the collision, a single air traffic controller was simultaneously keeping an eye on both the helicopter and airplane traffic.

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

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

Surveillance footage 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 all at once keeping an eye on both the helicopter and aircraft traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here

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

A supervisor supposedly decided to integrate those responsibilities before the arranged cutoff time nevertheless, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

Reagan National has been understaffed for lots of years, with just 19 fully certified controllers since September 2023 – well listed below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

The situation appeared to have actually 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 towers is nothing brand-new, with well-known causes consisting of high turnover and spending plan cuts.

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In order to fill the gaps, controllers are regularly 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 ‘unusual’.

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 investigation is uncommon.’

The two aircraft had actually collided in a big 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, 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 seat belts for several minutes till they tentatively began evacuating.

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

Some 21 people were required to the hospital for treatment to minor injuries, and Delta has actually provided everyone a no-strings $30,000 payment in payment.

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

Dramatic footage showed the Beechcraft A36TC appear in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were rushed to health center.

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

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

American Airlines