VIRGINIA, Arlington — A Black Hawk helicopter of the Army and an American Airlines regional jet collided in midair near Ronald Reagan International Airport on Wednesday evening killing all the 67 people on the two crafts on board. The investigators are still figuring out if the military pilot’s actions were the main cause of what is now the worst U.S. aviation disaster in almost 25 years.
The Hudson River Police recovered 28 bodies from the icy Potomac River after the helicopter appeared to collide with the jet as it made its way towards the airport from Wichita, Kansas, authorities said. There were 60 passengers and four crew on the Bombardier CRJ700, a model that has been in service since 2003. Three soldiers were on board the Black Hawk helicopter.
President Donald Trump also confirmed that no one survived during a White House press conference on Thursday. “We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, fire chief of the District of Columbia. It happened before 9:00 p.m. in heavily restricted and closely monitored airspace, around three miles (4.8 kilometers) south of the White House and the Capitol building.
Peter Knudson, an NTSB spokesperson, said the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the CRJ700 were recovered and taken to NTSB laboratories for analysis. First responders discovered that the jet was upside down in three sections and that the water was up to their waists. Some images showed rescue boats trying to make their way around the partially submerged aircraft wing and the shredded fuselage. The helicopter wreckage was also spotted in the river.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the jet had been on a normal approach when “the military aircraft came into the path” of the plane. An FAA report obtained by The Associated Press showed that one air traffic controller was responsible for both helicopter traffic and the arrival and departure of other planes at the time of the collision. It is usual to have two people do these duties, but in some towers, they combine them at 9:30 p.m. when the traffic reduces. On Wednesday night, the supervisor brought them together earlier than they normally would have. “The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said. However, a source with knowledge of the situation said that tower staffing was within the normal range for that night. Moreover, the FAA has had a shortage of air traffic controllers for a long time, and combining positions is common during breaks, shift changes, or low-traffic times, the source said, requesting anonymity.
Officials stated that the skies were clear as the flight approached from Wichita, which was carrying a group of elite youth figure skaters, their parents and coaches, as well as four union steamfitters from the Washington region. Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, described the Black Hawk’s crew as “very experienced” and accustomed to flying in the capital’s congested airspace. The two pilots had also flown the same route at night before. It is still not known whether the helicopter rose higher than the set limit of 200 feet (60 meters) at the time of the crash. Whether altitude was a factor or not, Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said so, and Koziol said more flight data analysis is required.
On Thursday, President Trump started his briefing with a moment of silence for the victims, calling it an “hour of anguish” for the entire nation.
Reagan National Airport was a pretty sad place. Passengers were left stranded and waiting for the flights to be resumed while looking towards the Potomac where the recovery workers still stood on the water. For Aster Andemicael, who has been traveling with her father since the previous evening, all the thoughts are with the victims and their families. “I’ve been crying since yesterday,” she said. “This is devastating.” Flights were resumed at about midday.
This is the worst aviation disaster in the U.S. since November 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a Belle Harbor neighborhood in New York killing all 260 people aboard. The last major fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airliner was in 2009 near Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people. Despite such tragedies, experts underscore the rarity of deadly airplane incidents. The National Safety Council points out that the odds of dying in a motor vehicle collision are 1 in 93, and fatalities on commercial flights are so rare that they cannot be meaningfully calculated, according to data from the Department of Transportation.
Nevertheless, flying in and out of Reagan National can put even the most experienced pilots to the test because of the strict restrictions, the crowded skies and the high priority airspace that serves so many sensitive locations in Washington. In fact, just over a day before the crash, another regional jet made a second approach after controllers alerted its pilot to a military helicopter in the vicinity; that plane landed safely minutes later.
