A screen grab captured from a video shows a regional plane collided in midair with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. United States on Jan. 29, 2025.
Kennedy Center Cam | Anadolu | Getty Images
The midair collision of a military helicopter and an American Airlines regional jetliner near Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night brings to an end a streak of business air travel safety that was unknown to previous generations.
It’s the deadliest air disaster on U.S. soil in greater than 20 years.
Officials said Thursday morning that they were shifting from a recovery effort to a rescue effort and that there have been no survivors. Washington’s Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said 27 bodies have been recovered thus far.
American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at an altitude of about 300 feet when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people collided with the industrial jetliner.
Sixty-four people — 60 passengers and 4 crew members — were on board the American flight. The flight was operated by American subsidiary carrier PSA Airlines. The plane was a Bombardier CRJ700, a regional jet used for shorter routes.
Rescuers had raced to get well passengers from the frigid waters of the Potomac River on Wednesday night, but local officials said conditions were difficult resulting from high winds.
Rescuers on boats work because the sun rises at the location of the crash within the Potomac River after a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Eagle flight 5342 approaching Reagan Washington National Airport collided and crashed outside Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The U.S. has gone years and not using a fatal industrial airline crash. The last deadly U.S. industrial passenger airline crash occurred in February 2009 when Continental Flight 3407 crashed right into a house because it was arriving in Buffalo, Recent York, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the bottom.
The crash of that turboprop aircraft prompted federal regulations requiring more rest and training for pilots.
The deadliest incident in recent memory was American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 that crashed in November 2001 shortly after it took off from Recent York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport headed for the Dominican Republic. All 260 people on the flight were killed and five others died on the bottom in Queens.
Airplane crashes have change into extremely rare, which safety experts often chalk as much as overlapping and redundant safety measures.
“It’s extremely secure. Even with this accident I’ll say it’s extremely secure,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The NTSB will lead an investigation into Wednesday’s accident. It should include the FAA, American Airlines, crew members’ labor unions and other parties.
The NTSB will issue a preliminary report, but a final report that determines the cause or causes of an airplane crash can take months, if not greater than a yr.
Investigators will examine air traffic control recordings, training records, and cockpit voice and data recorders if the black boxes are recovered, together with a bunch of other aspects.
The accident presents a challenge to President Donald Trump days into his latest term. He has not yet named a candidate to change into a everlasting head of the Federal Aviation Administration after Biden-appointed Mike Whitaker stepped down Jan. 20, when Trump’s term began.
The FAA in 2023 laid out a plan designed to enhance safety further and eliminate all “close calls” at airports.
