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

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

The National Transportation Safety Board offered an upgrade on their examination into the reason for 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, eliminating everyone on board both aircrafts.

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

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

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

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

Homendy stated the NTSB is now suggesting that the FAA find a ‘irreversible solution’ for detours for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways remain in use.

Emergency systems respond after a traveler 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 reporters about the 29 January mid-air crash

It was likewise exposed on Tuesday that there was warning signs in the lead up to the fatal catastrophe.

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

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

The NTSB also stated that there were 85 cases where two 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) might have used that details at any time to determine that we have a trend here and a problem here, and took a look at that route; that didn’t take place, which is why we’re acting today. But regrettably, individuals lost lives, and liked ones are grieving.’

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

Duffy said: ‘I think the concern is when this information can be found in how did the FAA not know. How did they not study the data to say “hi, this is a location, we are having near misses and if we don’t alter our methods we are gon na lose lives”.’

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

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

Pictured: Parts of the wreckage seen sitting in the Potomac River after Flight 5342 clashed with 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 inaccurate altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.

The accident likely occurred at an elevation simply under 300 feet, as the airplane descended towards the chopper, which was above its 200-foot limitation for that area.

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

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

The helicopter pilots might have likewise missed out on part of another communication, when the tower said 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 undergoing a yearly test and a test on utilizing 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 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 all at once keeping track of both the helicopter and aircraft traffic.

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

Those jobs are generally dealt with in between 2 individuals from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to the report.

Surveillance video footage drawn from inside the airport caught the minute the two clashed in midair

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

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

A supervisor supposedly chose to integrate those responsibilities before the arranged cutoff time however, and permitted one air traffic controller to leave work early.

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

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

The circumstance appeared to have improved 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 well-known causes including high turnover and budget 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 considered the findings as ‘uncommon’.

She said: ‘This NTSB action is highly uncommon. The release of an emergency recommendation asking for the FAA take immediate action, before the completion of the NTSB examination is uncommon.’

The 2 aircraft had clashed in a big 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 passenger plane crashed-landed upside down in disorderly scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.

Miraculously, everyone on board survived after being suspended upside-down by their seatbelts for several minutes till they tentatively started leaving.

The plane had 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 healthcare facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has actually offered everyone a no-strings $30,000 payout in settlement.

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

Dramatic video footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC erupt in flames in the parking area of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five individuals were hurried to medical facility.

Medics, ambulances, and emergency situation lorries rushed to the scene in Lancaster County as flames engulfed the aircraft and nearby cars.

The aircraft took off as arranged on Sunday afternoon, but quickly asked for to land back on the tarmac due to the fact that its door had opened.

American Airlines