Investigators are scrambling to figure out why a military helicopter and a passenger airplane collided and plunged into the Potomac River in Washington, DC, late Wednesday, the first major US air crash in 16 years.
From the little that’s known, human error likely played a role, raising questions about a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers and pilots. During a press conference Thursday morning, President Donald Trump at times appeared to blame diversity programs within the Federal Aviation Administration and the helicopter’s pilots for the crash, though he admitted there were no known links between FAA hiring policies and the crash beyond “common sense.” Authorities may also be looking at coordination between military and civilian aviation.
US officials say an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers plowed into the tail of a Bombardier CRJ-700 jet out of Wichita, Kansas, as the airliner was less than a mile from landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport. Video of the incident appeared to show the flaming remains of both aircraft tumble a few hundred feet into the shallow, icy river.
The passenger jet, which was operated by regional carrier PSA Airlines on behalf of American Airlines, had 64 people on board, and police boats have already recovered 27 bodies. Officials said Thursday morning they expect there to be no survivors. The last aircraft tragedy this deadly in the United States was the Colgan Air crash in New York state in 2009.
In a video released on Thursday morning, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that the helicopter was associated with the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion, which is based less than 20 miles from DC’s national airport. The secretary said the “fairly experienced” crew was conducting a required annual night evaluation and were equipped with night-vision goggles. The identity of those on board is known, and their next of kin are being informed.
In a grainy video from the nearby Kennedy Center, a smaller light, presumably the helicopter, can be seen overtaking the brighter light of the plane, both of them flying low to the ground. The two collide in a massive explosion, splitting into several burning fragments.
A few minutes before the American Airlines flight’s arrival, air traffic control asked if it could land on runway 33, a shorter runway. The pilots said yes, apparently switching runways during their approach. Some have wondered whether this change in flight path could have caught the Black Hawk off guard.
But retired Air Force Brigadier General John Teichert told NewsNation television that this shouldn’t have caused a crash. “I think that while they would have been told to switch runways, it’s not this aggressive maneuver in a regional jet that would prompt them to reposition and be a surprise to the Black Hawk,” he said.
Eighty percent of aviation accidents worldwide can be attributed to human error, and that is a prime candidate in this case, Marco Chan, a former pilot who now heads pilot programs at Buckinghamshire New University, told WIRED. “Perhaps safety protocols, human factors were at play,” he says. In recent years, the FAA has struggled to replace retiring air traffic controllers, even as the number of air passengers and flights rebounded after the pandemic. The FAA said last fall that it had exceeded its internal air traffic controller hiring goals for the year.