Breaking news story, details may change. An American Eagle commuter jet crashed with a helicopter at Washington Reagan National Airport on January 29th, 2025.
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American Eagle Collides With Helicopter
Dramatic video and tragic news coming out of Washington DC tonight as an American Eagle CJR 700 collided with a helicopter during short final approach into Washington Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. American Airlines flight AA5342 inbound from Wichita, Kansas (ICT.) The aircraft was landing but the crash happened before it reached the runway, wreckage spilled into the icy Potomac river.
Footage distributed on X was captured by the Kennedy Center’s live cam:
Webcam at the Kennedy Center caught an explosion mid-air across the Potomac. https://t.co/v75sxitpH6 pic.twitter.com/HInYdhBYs5
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) January 30, 2025
One source reported that the helicopter was a BlackHawk (military) helicopter.
I doubt the CRJ crew even got a warning.
PSA CRJ-700 collides with a Blackhawk helicopter.
One of the few situations that the TCAS anti collision system likely does not protect from, happens. https://t.co/63dNvnP2qv— Bob Allen (@CaptBob_Nomadic) January 30, 2025
One commenter on the same thread mentioned that AA5342 was on short final for Runway 1 before switching to Runway 33 (bisecting the intended runway) and it’s unknown as to whether that late switch conflicted with the helicopter’s flight path.
Fatalities Reported, Rescue Ongoing
At the time of writing, there was no official number of souls onboard but the aircraft is capable of accommodating up to 70 passengers. Details of the helicopter have not been made available. One source (below) put the number at 60. Other reports have corroborated the 60 passenger number and added four crew to the commercial aircraft, no word on the helicopter.
While the number of fatalities is unknown, there have been some reported. A recovery operation by fire, police, EMS are underway. AlertPage on X noted that there were “rescues made.”
WASHINGTON DC – INITIAL REPORTS FROM THE AIRPORT – 60 SOULS ON BOARD THE COMMERCIAL JET THAT STRUCK A HELICOPTER – SOME RESCUES HAVE BEEN MADE BY THE FIRE BOAT – MULTIPLE JURISDICTIONS ARE RESPONDING #BREAKING
— Alertpage, Inc (@alertpage) January 30, 2025
The search for survivors by rescue helicopter is frantically underway. The airport terminal remains open for travelers but all take-offs and landings have been halted, inbound aircraft diverted to nearby alternative airfields.
BREAKING REPORT: An American Airlines regional passenger plane reportedly collided with a helicopter and fell into the Potomac River upon landing at DCA Airport near Washington. Reports suggest the flight is AA5342 from Wichita, Kansas with 60 on board. pic.twitter.com/eW0dDDMCEK
— Sandy Murray (@yoelishyanks) January 30, 2025
It’s been reported that four survivors were rescued:
Breaking News: Rescue Crews have found four survivors from the Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines plane that collided near Reagan National airport. Searchers are also looking for survivors in the Potomac river. Source: NBC 4 DC
–#BreakingNews #PlaneCrash pic.twitter.com/srwbyrMl5T— Rebecca Aguilar (on Blue Sky & LinkedIn) (@RebeccaAguilar) January 30, 2025
Some tower audio was available via LiveATC with audible gasps. According to our resident 121Pilot, the Black Hawk helicopter was told to maintain visual separation.
Pulled the ATC audio around the time of the reported incident at DCA.
You can hear the audible gasps in the tower. Controller then sent other traffic around.
Via @liveatc pic.twitter.com/aHbp5czPb9
— Ryan Ewing (@FlyingHighRyan) January 30, 2025
Additional audio is here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1B6eTKJ8sQ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
I’d prefer to avoid too much speculation, but some have stated online that this particular helicopter was used for VIP transport. As of 11PM EST some scanners reported the rescue mission had been called off though, again, it’s unconfirmed.
We can only hope and pray for survivors. We will update this story as details unfold.
It’s only been a week and this incompetent administration is already crashing DoD helicopters into passenger jets. Truly unbelievable. Hegseth should be out immediately
R.I.P to those who needlessly lost their lives.
Wow, that’s unhinged. The Trump administration has only been in office for a week and the transportation secretary was just confirmed today but you want to blame them for DEI hires who have ruined ATC and the military under Biden?
It’s Trump who wanted to privatize ATC and make a leader instead of keep an antiquated system that’s unsafe and relies on DEI losers
Unhinged? How? The world has dealt with eight years of unhinged lies and conspiracies from MAGA. Seemed to work for them. So perhaps the once rational opposition needs to resort to the same?
You reap what you sow.
If anything this was caused dei atc controllers.
What is a DEI hire? Just any minority? I’m sure Santastico would be glad to know in your mind he is a DEI hire at his job
All of these FAA controllers are useless. Government gone wild! Let’s fire them all!; they are controlling too much of our lives already. We’ll be badder w/o them…
Sez the GOP, and their fascist idiot Trump.
A federal ATC and federal Army helo pilots f up, whether here depending on what comes out and in many incidents in the past, and yet you want more government? DEI government does us no favors.
We are safer with a privatized system using the latest technology and not relying on flawed individuals.
Libtards like you are mentally ill.
Hope there were plenty of your ilk on that plane.
Yea? It’s only a shame you werent on the plane you maga POS
Please rise above and do not make this political. Grow Up!
God provide rest for the lost souls, strength for their families and keep the first responders safe.
Thank you. And I’ll add an amen.
@Matthew and @sunviking82 … +1 . Yes .
If this happened 11 days ago, you know what Fox News would be saying. In this case Fox News has its former talking heads in charge of the military and in charge of DOT/FAA.
Have they yet made a comment about the tragedy?
Lies, blame, and the seeding of hate worked for MAGA. It’s only natural the rest of the country will be forced to go low as well. And it will only get worse. This is how it starts…how it ends will not be pretty.
Not pretty for people like you.
They’re just following the politicizing tragedy playbook laid out by the current President. Manhattan terrorist attacks… LA Wildfires… Hurricane Helene… Train derailment… New Orleans NYE… and on and on and on…
Trump’s first statement was idiotic as he is and who supports him, without any words for the victims.
And it’s true, if it were two weeks ago, the brainless MAGA crowd would be blaming “Brandon.”
RIP for the victims.
But those were caused by failed leftwing policies.
Much like this crash and DEI atc controllers.
Lefties are incapable.
Politics is all they have in life and political schadenfreude is what drives their ideology.
AA.com flight status says the flight is still flying. Arrival was supposed to be 2 hours ago.
Heard at 8:35PM pacific time that 4 people have been pulled from the water. Not sure if they mean bodies or live people. But we can only hope. Water temperatures in the low 30s (F) so it’s not looking good. This is the first major accident in American commercial aviation in over a decade. But how did I know this comment section would be bunch of trolls. You show your true colors when you respond to tragedy like this; act accordingly, and THINK before you post, please. Anyone making this a red vs blue thing before ANY data or information comes in is self-discrediting.
4 people rescued (alive at the time) from the cold water.
No, the four were just bodies pulled out of the water.
Rescue effort over. Recovery will continue tomorrow.
News reports are now saying that they’ve called around to all major DC-area hospitals, asking if they had received any survivors. Nope, none reported as of 11 pm Pacific/2 am Eastern.
Sure looks like zero survivors and 100% fatalities to me.
We’ll know a bit more in the morning.
Maybe stop encouraging all the Air Traffic Controllers to quit ASAP? Just a thought.
It can’t be good for safety to have so many FAA employees (and others) being distracted by concerns about being suddenly canned or finding their next job.
Praying for everyone. All of us. Such heartbreaking news.
What a terrible day for America. God bless the victims and their families. What is going on with aviation lately ? There were three crashes also at the end of last year. :(((
My mom worked at JFK for TWA flight 800 and also on 9/11 for American. Awful. She also survived 2 plane crashes. American 587 missed her home in Belle Harbour , NY by 150 yards. She was on TWA flight 2 a regularly scheduled flight between JFK and STL operated by a 767 back in the day. The plane aborted take off and smoke filled the cabin . Anyways Enough about my sob story.
@D3King … +1 . Thank you .
What is going on with aviation ? My answer would be too many aircraft flights .
This is sad. Prayers for those people.
New DoT guy gets one hell of a week 1 task.
Thank God that DEI hire buttigieg was replaced by the guy from “Road Rules”. I mean we all know driving around in an RV for a TV show qualifies you to run the transportation department.
Thank God the DEI hire Lloyd Austin is gone. He was only a 4 star general. Pete Hegseth is a master at beating his wife and getting away with it. THATS who should be running the DoD!
Thank you Kyle for your measured post/analysis. I hope we do not see this tragedy deteriorate into a political slug fest. Compared to the stringent control of the Johannesburg Helilanes and rigid procedures especially closer to JNB, this entire airspace setup in DC looks simply beyond belief from a South African point of view.
Deteriorate? Trump started it already. His first instinct was to find out how to blame “DEI” and his first public statement ignored the victims of the tragedy. He doesn’t care about dead Americans. He cares about what is in it for him.
C’est la vie avec Trump.
I took the metro to work over the bridge on Thursday from the pentagon to l’enfant plaza and did a silent prayer for them. I didn’t see much activity.
DCA is a treasured airport in the region. It’s super convenient and my branch chief loves it because it takes him 20 minutes to get home from there. He hates Dulles (which I happen to rather like, strangely). Anyways, it’s known to be heavily congested and there’s talk of more flights coming/going from it.
One question that arises is whether our ATC systems need upgrading from the 80’s. Listen, as, er, someone from the 1980’s, I must say we made some pretty cool stuff that’s built to last forever, like a 1992 Honda Civic forever. Perhaps that needs updating.
I’ll await the report before jumping-to-conclusions but… (yeah) I wonder how someone who flies a military aircraft, something designed to be FLOWN at night (to not get shot at, after all) could hit a passenger aircraft unintentionally. The standards for military pilots generally should be higher for that reason. We shall see what comes out so I’ll reserve judgement.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled out of Reagan which was an inconvenience for, well, math? hundreds of thousands of people. I appreciate the importance of recovery/investigation but I think they should have kept the flights going but, like, that’s totally my uninformed opinion.
How’s your father-in-law doing?