A screen grab captured from a video shows a regional plane collided in midair with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. United States on Jan. 29, 2025.
Kennedy Center Cam | Anadolu | Getty Images
The midair collision of a military helicopter and an American Airlines regional jetliner near Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night brings to an end a streak of commercial air travel safety that was unknown to previous generations.
It is the deadliest air disaster on U.S. soil in more than 20 years.
Officials said Thursday morning that they were changing from a recovery effort to a rescue effort and that there were no survivors. Washington’s Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said 27 bodies have been recovered so far.
American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at an altitude of about 300 feet when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people collided with the commercial jetliner.
Sixty-four people — 60 passengers and four crew members — were on board the American flight. The flight was operated by American subsidiary carrier PSA Airlines. The plane was a Bombardier CRJ700, a regional jet used for shorter routes.
Rescuers had raced to recover passengers from the frigid waters of the Potomac River on Wednesday night, but local officials said conditions were challenging due to high winds.
Rescuers on boats work as the sun rises at the site of the crash in the Potomac River after a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Eagle flight 5342 approaching Reagan Washington National Airport collided and crashed outside Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The U.S. has gone years without a fatal commercial airline crash. The last deadly U.S. commercial passenger airline crash occurred in February 2009 when Continental Flight 3407 crashed into a house as it was arriving in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground.
The crash of that turboprop aircraft prompted federal regulations requiring more rest and training for pilots.
The deadliest incident in recent memory was American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 that crashed in November 2001 shortly after it took off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport headed for the Dominican Republic. All 260 people on the flight were killed and five others died on the ground in Queens.
Airplane crashes have become extremely rare, which safety experts often chalk up to overlapping and redundant safety measures.
“It’s extremely safe. Even with this accident I’ll say it’s extremely safe,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The NTSB will lead an investigation into Wednesday’s accident. It will include the FAA, American Airlines, crew members’ labor unions and other parties.
The NTSB will issue a preliminary report, but a final report that determines the cause or causes of an airplane crash can take months, if not more than a year.
Investigators will examine everything from air traffic control recordings, training records, cockpit voice and data recorders to black boxes if and when they are discovered, along with a host of other factors.
The accident presents a challenge to President Donald Trump days into his new term. He has not yet named a candidate to become a permanent head for the Federal Aviation Administration after Biden-appointed Mike Whitaker stepped down Jan. 20, when Trump’s term began.
The FAA in 2023 laid out a plan designed to improve safety further and eliminate all “close calls” at airports.
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