Federal investigators have actually raised issues of a potential for another fatal aircraft crash at Reagan National Airport, after a midair crash earlier this year killed 67.
The National Transportation Safety Board offered an update on their investigation into the cause of the disaster which took place on January 29 in Washington.
An American Airlines jetliner and a Black Hawk military helicopter collided in midair over the Potomac River, eliminating everybody on board both aircrafts.
As part of a preliminary report launched on Tuesday, private investigators raised concerns of more crashes involving helicopters at the airport.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said: ‘We stay concerned about the substantial capacity for future mid-air crash at DCA.’
Her issues revolve around Transport Secretary Sean Duffy moving to limit helicopter traffic around the area, but that is set to cease at the end of the month.
When authorities, medical or presidential transport helicopters should use the area civilian planes are stopped from remaining in the exact same location.
Homendy stated the NTSB is now that the FAA find a ‘permanent solution’ for detours for helicopters when two of the airport’s runways remain in use.
Emergency units respond after a passenger 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 talks to press reporters about the 29 January mid-air collision
It was likewise exposed on Tuesday that there was cautioning signs in the lead up to the deadly catastrophe.
Those penetrating the crash went through 944,179 operations in between October 2021 and December 2024.
It was revealed that 15,214 ‘near-miss occasions’ of planes getting notifies about helicopters remaining in close proximity between October 2021 and December 2024.
The NTSB also stated that there were 85 cases where two aircraft 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) could have used that info any time to figure out that we have a trend here and a problem here, and looked at that path; that didn’t happen, which is why we’re acting today. But sadly, people lost lives, and enjoyed ones are grieving.’
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy knocked these findings at a later press conference on Tuesday.
Duffy said: ‘I think the question is when this information can be found in how did the FAA not understand. How did they not study the data to state “hello, this is a hot spot, we are having near misses and if we don’t change our ways we are gon na lose lives”.’
He included: ‘That wasn’t done, maybe there was a focus on something besides safety.’
Duffy would later on 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 believe that the helicopter associated with the crash might have had incorrect altitude readings in the minutes before the crash.
The accident likely took place at an elevation simply under 300 feet, as the plane 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, saying: ‘We’re grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board’s urgent safety recommendations to limit helicopter traffic near DCA and for its extensive investigation.
‘We will continue to collaborate closely with PSA Airlines as it works together as an investigative party member.’
The helicopter pilots may have also 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 using night vision safety glasses, Homendy stated.
Investigators believe the crew was using night vision goggles throughout the flight.
The Army has said the Black Hawk crew was highly experienced, and accustomed to the congested skies around the nation ´ s capital.
At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was all at once keeping track of both the helicopter and plane traffic.
Those tasks are normally handled in between 2 people from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to an early FAA report seen by The New York Times.
Those jobs are typically dealt with between two individuals from 10am till 9:30 pm, according to the report.
Surveillance footage taken from inside the airport recorded the minute the two collided in midair
At the time of the accident, a single air traffic controller was all at once keeping an eye on both the helicopter and airplane traffic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen here
After 9:30 pm the responsibilities are generally combined and left to someone as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.
A supervisor apparently chose to combine those responsibilities before the scheduled cutoff time however, and permitted one air traffic controller to leave work early.
The FAA report stated that staffing configuration ‘was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic’.
Reagan National has been understaffed for several years, with just 19 totally certified controllers as of September 2023 – well below the target of 30 – according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.
The circumstance appeared to have actually improved given that 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 service towers is nothing brand-new, with widely known causes including high turnover and spending plan cuts.
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In order to fill the gaps, controllers are frequently asked to work 10-hour days, 6 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 highly uncommon. The release of an emergency situation recommendation asking for the FAA take immediate action, before the conclusion of the NTSB investigation is unusual.’
The two aircraft had clashed in a substantial fireball that was noticeable 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 guest plane crashed-landed upside down in chaotic scenes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.
Miraculously, everybody on board made it through after being suspended upside-down by their seat belts for numerous minutes until they tentatively started leaving.
The airplane had actually been heading to Toronto from Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Airport with 76 guests and 4 team members on board.
Some 21 individuals were taken to the healthcare facility for treatment to small injuries, and Delta has used each individual a no-strings $30,000 payment in payment.
And the airplane carnage is ongoing – on Sunday, yet another jet crash-landed, this time in a parking lot of a suburban Pennsylvania retirement community.
Dramatic footage revealed the Beechcraft A36TC emerge in flames in the car park of Brethren Village in Manheim Township. Five people were rushed to medical facility.
Medics, ambulances, and emergency cars rushed to the scene in Lancaster County as flames swallowed up the airplane and neighboring cars.
The plane took off as scheduled on Sunday afternoon, but rapidly requested to land back on the tarmac since its door had actually opened.
American Airlines