WASHINGTON – The Nationwide Transportation Security Board will maintain three days of hearings beginning Wednesday on January’s midair collision between an American Airways passenger jet and an Military helicopter over the nation’s capital that killed 67 people.
The objective: Pinpoint precisely what went flawed and what could be carried out to keep away from comparable midair crashes between passenger planes and army plane. The accident was the nation’s deadliest aircraft crash since November 2001.
The hearings in Washington will contain NTSB board members, investigators and witnesses. Panels will deal with army helicopter routes within the Washington space, collision avoidance know-how and coaching for air visitors controllers at Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport, amongst different topics.
NTSB officers have already mentioned the FAA failed to acknowledge a regarding sample after there have been 85 near misses in Washington airspace in simply three years. The FAA has since banned some helicopter routes to verify helicopters and planes now not share the identical airspace, however there have nonetheless been additional near misses in current months.
Investigators have additionally mentioned that the Military helicopter may have had inaccurate altitude readings, and the crew might not have heard key directions from air visitors controllers.
In the meantime, federal officers have raised concerns over the nation’s overtaxed and understaffed air visitors management system. Throughout January’s mid-air crash above Washington, one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic on the busy airport.
The hearings come at a time of heightened scrutiny of the security of air journey amid the rising record of plane tragedies, mishaps and close to misses in 2025. They embody an Air India plane crash in June that killed at the very least 260 folks in addition to two unrelatedclose calls within the U.S. this month through which passenger jets took evasive motion to keep away from army planes.
Right here’s a have a look at the crash, the investigation to date and different notable plane incidents this 12 months.
What occurred?
American Airways Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew members because it approached to land on a transparent evening at Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport. Close by, the Military Black Hawk, with three troopers on board, was working towards emergency evacuation routes that will be used to ferry out key authorities officers in an emergency.
Investigators have mentioned the helicopter crew was sporting night-vision goggles that will have restricted their peripheral imaginative and prescient.
A couple of minutes earlier than the twin-engine jet was to land, air visitors controllers requested if it might use a shorter runway. The pilots agreed, and flight-tracking websites present the aircraft turned to regulate its method. The FAA has since permanently banned that exact helicopter route when planes are utilizing that runway.
Shortly earlier than the collision, a controller received an alert saying the aircraft and Black Hawk have been converging and requested the helicopter if it had the jet in sight. The army pilot mentioned sure and requested for “visible separation” with the jet for a second time, permitting it to fly nearer than if the pilots couldn’t see the aircraft.
Controllers accredited the request roughly 20 seconds earlier than the collision.
The NTSB has mentioned there have been 85 dangerous close calls between planes and helicopters close to Reagan Nationwide within the three years earlier than the crash, and collision alarms had been ordering pilots to take evasive motion at the very least as soon as a month since 2011.
The investigation
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy advised reporters in February that the Black Hawk’s cockpit recorder instructed an incomplete radio transmission might have left the crew unable to listen to air visitors management inform them, simply earlier than the crash, to maneuver behind the jet. She mentioned the crew was unable to listen to the phrases “go behind the” as a result of its microphone key was pressed.
The radio altitude of the helicopter was 278 toes (85 meters) on the time, which might put it above its 200-foot (61-meter) restrict for that location.
Cockpit conversations a couple of minutes earlier than the crash point out that the crew might not have had correct altitude readings, with the helicopter’s pilot calling out that they have been at 300 toes (91 meters) however the teacher pilot saying 400 toes (122 meters), Homendy mentioned.
That era of Black Hawks sometimes has two sorts of altimeters: one counting on barometric stress and the opposite on radio frequency indicators bounced off the bottom. Helicopter pilots sometimes depend on barometric readings whereas flying, however the helicopter’s black field captures its radio altitude.
Nearly instantly after the crash, President Donald Trump faulted the helicopter for flying too high. He additionally blamed federal variety and inclusion efforts, notably relating to air visitors controllers. When pressed by reporters, the president couldn’t again up these claims. A couple of days later, he blamed an “obsolete” air traffic control system.
January’s crash prompted the Federal Aviation Administration in March to announce that helicopters can be completely restricted from flying on the identical route the place the collision occurred.
Nonetheless, considerations over Washington’s airspace have persevered. On Could 1, army air visitors controllers misplaced contact with an Military helicopter for about 20 seconds because it neared the Pentagon on a flight that triggered two industrial jets to abort their landings. After that incident, the Military paused all flights into and out of the Pentagon as it really works with the FAA to handle issues of safety.
The victims
The Military recognized the Black Hawk crew as Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, 28, of Durham, North Carolina; Workers Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Nice Mills, Maryland. O’Hara was the crew chief, and Eaves and Lobach have been pilots.
Among the many jet’s passengers have been a number of members of the Skating Club of Boston who have been coming back from a improvement camp for elite junior skaters that adopted the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. A figure skating tribute event in Washington raised $1.2 million for the crash victims’ households.
Others included a bunch of hunters coming back from a guided journey in Kansas; 4 members of a steamfitters’ union in suburban Maryland; 9 college students and oldsters from colleges in Fairfax County, Virginia; and two Chinese language nationals.
What about different crashes this 12 months?
Apart from the midair collision above Washington, a string of different current crashes have introduced consideration to air journey, which stays overwhelmingly secure. The crashes embody:
On Jan. 31 a medical transport jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven.
On Feb. 6 a small commuter aircraft went down off western Alaska, killing 10.
On Feb. 17, a Delta aircraft crashed and flipped over upon touchdown in Toronto however everybody survived. Two small planes collided in midair in Arizona on Feb. 19, killing two folks.
On April 10, a New York Metropolis sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a household of 5 Spanish vacationers.
On April 11, three folks have been killed and one was injured when a small plane crashed in Boca Raton, Florida.
The crash of the Air India passenger plane in June occurred within the northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad, killing greater than 240 people bound for London and others on the bottom, officers mentioned. A single passenger survived. The identical month, a small aircraft crashed off the San Diego coast shortly after takeoff, killing all six folks on board.
July included at the very least three deadly aircraft crashes. Two scholar pilots died when their single-engine planes crashed in midair south of Steinbach, within the Canadian province of Manitoba. A small aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from London Southend Airport, killing four people. A North Carolina household of 4, together with two school-age youngsters, died when their small plane crashed as they flew again from Florida.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
