As investigators begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together concerning the collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter with an American Airlines regional jet, there are several key details that have emerged that make it impossible to understand exactly why this tragic accident occurred.
Notable Irregularities Revealed After Collion Of Army Helicopter With American Airlines Regional Jet
Let’s look at several key points that have emerged over the last 24 hours that may serve as puzzle pieces in the effort to understand how this tragedy occured.
#1: Air Traffic Control Tower Was Understaffed
A preliminary internal report from the Federal Aviation Administration reveals that staffers was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic” at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) when the accident occurred.
The air traffic controller assigned to handle helicopters in the vicinity of DCA was also instructing both departing and arriving planes. Based on the traffic volume, those jobs are meant for two controllers, not one.
Even so…the chronic understaffing in FAA control towers has been a problem for years and the idea of one controller doing the job of two was not so much an anomaly as much as the status quo in many towers.
It appears the issue is not the wrong people in the job, but simply a shortage of qualified men and women to do the highly stressful job…
#2: AA5342 Was Asked To Change Runways For Landing
American Airlines Flight 5342 was cleared to land on Runway 1, the main runway at Washington National Airport, before being re-assigned to land on Runway 33, an intersecting runway, in the final minutes of the flight. This itself is not uncommon with regional jets at DCA to keep the main runway from becoming clogged.
Intersecting runways are a reality at many airports, but the FAA has taken steps to eliminate them when feasible in larger airports like Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), citing safety concerns.
#3: Air Traffic Controllers Warned US Army Helicopter Ahead Of Crash
The ATC audio reveals that the Army Helicopter was warned of AA5342 in its vicinity and instructed to “pass behind” the jet. Moments later, audible gasps could be heard from air traffic controllers as the two aircraft collided.
ATC: “PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?”
(PAT 2-5 was the call sign for the Army helicopter)
ATC: “PAT 2-5, pass behind the CRJ.”
Army Helicopter: “PAT 2-5 has aircraft in sight, request visual separation.”
Per Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Army helicopter was on a “routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things. It does routine things on a regular basis. Tragically, last night a mistake was made.”
CONCLUSION
These irregularities mat not mean anything and I’ll stop far short of assigning blame at this point, though I cannot imagine a scenario in which the American Airlines pilots are to blame for what occurred.
For me, the takeaway is that understaffing in US Air Traffic Control towers is real and a problem crying out for a solution. More staffing may not have prevented this tragedy, but one man should not be the job of two in such a stressful environment. Not when lives are at risk…
Emergency response teams including Washington, DC Fire and EMS respond after an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided with an Army helicopter while approaching National Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/CvvrhOpt3y
— Andrew Harnik (@andyharnik) January 30, 2025
> Read More: Trump Blames American Airlines Crash On DEI, Obama, Biden, And Buttigieg
top image: US Coast Guard
I just find it hard to believe nobody in the heli was aware under VFR of the plane and changed course sooner. I don’t know that staffing at the ATC would have changed much here. Anyone have the communication with the AA flight?
…or reduce runway 33 landing use for emergencies. Make runway 1 the sole usual runway. And lower the number of landings to no moʻre than 10 per hour. The rest of the flights can move to Dulles, which has much more runway capacity.
Biden called LaGuardia 3rd world. National is almost 3rd world as far as runways
That was Trump talking about LGA.
Are you serious man, its almost famous what Biden said, all you had to do was google Biden LGA third world
makes me wonder how you do research. I accept you apology in advance for really shoddy careless journalism.
Derek.runway 33 is important at DCA for winds. Earlier there were gusty winds, but it appeared to calm down a bit. Perhaps ATC was getting pilot reports of increased gusts again? I still believe DCA is safe. Small but safe.
Flying as a whole is safe. Even if one (hopefully never happens) plane a year crashes it’s still 2-3 orders of magnitude safer than driving. Taken on a 10 year moving average, it’s higher than that, currently.
I take much Trump says with a grain, but if the reports are true the copter was at 400 and shouldn’t have been above 200 ft, the question is WHY and HOW did it happen?
It shouldn’t take 6 months to solve the cause of this tragedy.
Eh, these reports always take a while to ensure the cause, and all ancillary details are fully accounted. I mean just because they might have been at 400ft, what caused them to be at 400ft? Was it an instrumentation error? Pilot error alone? How did none of the other 2 members onboard miss the jet? lots of questions still to answer.
Maybe they could see. Hearing, I don’t know. I’m sure the Sikorsky isn’t necessarily a quiet machine.
Understaffed FAA facilities is not an irregularly, it is the norm.
Has been for decades, and will continue to be so
What, IYO, can be done to fix this? Not being political. I know this I have heard as complaints for well over a decade. (probably longer, I was just not engaged in the conversation about this prior to about 2014 or so)
If 9/11 didn’t lead to the closure or shrinking of DCA, this will not either. Solution seems to be relocating the helicopter traffic away from the airport. The additional flight times should be negligible.
Eh, this wasn’t even typical helicopter traffic. This was a mil training op. So, that wouldn’t have changed even if they diverted all commercial heli traffic away from the airport. At this point, flying is so safe that we are bumping up against edge case failures. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t keep improving, it is just to say that all the easily foreseeable failures have already been accounted for. We are at the “last mile” problem.
RE: Trump’s comments. I always assume that the President (any President) has more information about a particular incident than I do. And as information dibbles out we may eventually learn what gave rise to Trump’s initial comments.
My understanding is that there was a CRJ departing 01 at the same time.
I suspect the helicopter pilot saw the CRJ departing and certainly had it in sight and was passing behind it. Sadly didn’t see the CRJ to his left landing on 33 that he collided with.