Well, you knew the government was going to be blamed, as they already admitted they’re liable in the tragic January 2025 mid-air collision that occurred over Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a US Black Hawk helicopter, killing everyone onboard both crafts. In total, 67 people were killed. The flight paths between the airlines and the military have been subject to criticism for years, with those ‘in the know’ admitting that while incredibly tragic, this incident was bound to happen (via NYT):
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the Federal Aviation Administration had approved dangerous flight routes that allowed an Army helicopter to fly into path of a passenger jet over the Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025, to calamitous results.
The investigating board also castigated the agency for not doing enough to respond to warnings about longtime risks to safety and found a complacent culture within the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport that relied too heavily on pilots in the airspace being able to see and steer clear of each others’ aircraft, a practice called visual separation.
They also determined that insufficient warnings from the air traffic controller to the pilots of the Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet involved in the crash, and altimeters that, unbeknown to the helicopter pilots, habitually gave faulty readings of altitude, also contributed to the tragic crash.
The long-awaited determination, which the board approved unanimously, is the culmination of a yearlong investigation that put the F.A.A. and Army under a microscope, as the board scrutinized how officials missed — or outright dismissed — risks that ultimately led to the collision.
“It’s one failure after another,” Jennifer Homendy, the board chair, told reporters during a break in the proceedings, adding: “This was 100 percent preventable.”
The N.T.S.B. focused the brunt of its ire on the F.A.A., determining that the route the Army Black Hawk helicopter flew along the Potomac River and the landing path of American Airlines Flight 5342 were never designed to ensure separation between aircraft — and that the dangers posed by the crisscrossing paths were never adequately reviewed.
The board also determined that the F.A.A. ignored repeated appeals from controllers to reduce National Airport’s traffic, even as its main runway became the single busiest in the United States. That forced controllers to routinely divert planes to a backup runway, as they did with the American Airlines flight that night, to manage congestion.
The National Transportation Safety Board also released the video footage of both aircraft before they collided:
BREAKING: The NTSB has released an animation reconstructing the final three minutes before the midair collision near Washington D.C., illustrating what each crew could—and couldn’t—see at night and why see-and-avoid measures failed. pic.twitter.com/yzIhRC0oDV
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 27, 2026
Since the crash, the FAA clamped down on non-essential helicopter traffic in the area, and they’re pushing to make the rule permanent.
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