• No survivors found after Black Hawk collides with passenger jet landing at Reagan National Airport
• Russian skaters among those killed; Trump blames diversity hiring without evidence, names new FAA chief

WASHINGTON: There were no survivors after an American Airlines regional flight collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday, and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near the Reagan National Airport.

American Airlines said 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the plane, while US officials said the helicopter was carrying three soldiers on a training flight.

This was the deadliest US air disaster since November 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed after departing from JFK International Airport in New York, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin told Reuters that the bodies of most of those involved in the collision had been recovered.

Passengers on the flight included ice skaters, family and coaches returning from events in Wichita, Kansas, including Russian-born former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

The mid-air collision occurred as the passenger jet was approaching to land at Reagan.

Radio communications showed the helicopter crew knew the plane was in the vicinity.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both the helicopter and the airplane had been flying standard flight patterns, and there had been no breakdown in communication.

CBS News reported that a dive team had recovered one of the two data recorders, the so-called black boxes, from the plane.

Airspace is frequently crowded in the US capital region, home to three commercial airports and several major military facilities, and officials have raised concerns about busy runways at Reagan National Airport, located just across the river from Washington.

There have been several near-miss incidents that have sparked alarm, including a near-collision in May 2024.

A shortage of air traffic controllers in the US has also spurred safety concerns in recent years.

But although he admitted it was not yet clear what caused the crash, President Donald Trump had some “very strong opinions and ideas” on the subject.

Blaming his predecessor, Joe Biden, for lowering standards for air traffic controllers, he said that federal diversity efforts were at fault, without offering any evidence to support the claim.

Asked if the crash was caused by diversity hiring, he said: “It just could have been.” Soon after the accident, Trump on Thursday said that he had appointed a former senior aviation official as the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Chris Rocheleau, a US Air Force veteran who worked at the FAA for more than 20 years, was previously chief operating officer of the National Business Aviation Association.

Mike Whitaker, who was unanimously confirmed as the FAA administrator in October 2023, stepped down on Jan 20 when Trump took office.

Expert opinion

Trump’s remarks contrasted sharply with those of other officials, who said there was no immediate indication why the crash took place.

Air traffic control recordings appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter, call sign PAT25, before it collided with the jet.

“PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller says at 0147 GMT on Wednesday, according to a recording on liveatc.net.

Seconds later, another aircraft calls in to air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?” — apparently referring to the crash.

An air traffic controller then redirects planes heading to runway 33 to go around.

According to Flightradar24’s Ian Petchenik, the collision occurred at approximately 300 feet (90 meters), mere seconds before landing.

“The runway threshold is at the river’s edge.

The Kansas flight was ready to touch down,“ he told WUSA-TV in DC.

Commercial aircraft like the one involved are equipped with TCAS (Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System), designed to alert pilots to nearby aircraft and provide last-minute collision avoidance instructions.

The helicopter was from the 12th Aviation Battalion, which is based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

The unit is responsible for helicopter flights in the US capital area and can be used to carry senior government officials.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the White House that there appears to have been an elevation issue with the Black Hawk, and said Army investigators were on the ground looking into the matter.

“It was a fairly experienced crew and it was doing a required annual night evaluation,” Hegseth said in an earlier statement.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2025