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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board provided an upgrade on their investigation into the cause of 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 everyone on board both airplanes.

As part of an initial report launched on Tuesday, private investigators raised issues of more accidents 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 focus on Transport Secretary Sean Duffy moving to limit helicopter traffic around the area, however that is set to cease at the end of the month.

When authorities, medical or presidential transport helicopters need to utilize the area civilian airplanes are stopped from remaining in the very same location.

Homendy said the NTSB is now advising that the FAA discover a ‘irreversible option’ for alternate paths for helicopters when 2 of the airport’s runways are in use.

Emergency units react after a traveler 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 with reporters about the 29 January mid-air accident

It was likewise exposed on Tuesday that there was cautioning indications in the lead up to the lethal disaster.

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

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

The NTSB likewise said that there were 85 cases where 2 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 a problem here, and looked at that path; that didn’t occur, which is why we’re doing something about it today. But sadly, people 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 question is when this data can be found in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the data to say « hi, this is a hot spot, we are having near misses out on and if we don’t change our methods we are gon na lose lives ».’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The helicopter pilots might have likewise missed out on part of another interaction, when the tower stated the jet was turning toward a different runway, Homendy stated last month.

The helicopter was on a ‘check’ flight that night where the pilot was going through an annual test and a test on using night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.

Investigators think the team was wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight.

The Army has stated the Black Hawk team was extremely experienced, and accustomed to the congested skies around the country ´ s capital.

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

Those tasks are typically handled in between 2 individuals from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New York Times.

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

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

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

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

A manager apparently chose to integrate those duties before the set up cutoff time however, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

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

The situation appeared to have enhanced since 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 towers is absolutely nothing new, with popular causes consisting of high turnover and spending plan 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, former 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 situation suggestion asking for the FAA take immediate action, before the conclusion of the NTSB investigation is uncommon.’

The two airplane had clashed in a big fireball that was visible on dashcams of automobiles driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

Less than a month later, on February 17, a Delta passenger airplane crashed-landed upside down in disorderly scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everybody on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for several minutes up until they tentatively started evacuating.

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

Some 21 individuals were taken to the hospital for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually provided each individual a no-strings $30,000 payout in payment.

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

Dramatic video footage showed the Beechcraft A36TC emerge in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were hurried to hospital.

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

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

American Airlines