The air traffic control at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is pictured, within the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, with the Capitol dome within the background, as seen from Virginia, U.S., January 30, 2025.Â
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
How an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided into an American Airlines jetliner in a deadly crash over the Potomac River Wednesday night continues to be unknown, but questions are emerging, including the altitude of the military helicopter.
Investigators are still pulling evidence from the Potomac and searching at every little thing from newly pulled flight data and cockpit voice recorder information. All 64 people on American Airlines Flight 5342 and the three aboard the helicopter were killed within the fireball collision near the Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport, marking the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.
The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft was flying at about 300 feet on final approach into Reagan National’s Runway 33 shortly before 9 p.m. ET Wednesday when it collided with the Black Hawk helicopter.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter was on an annual proficiency training flight.
In response to Federal Aviation Administration rules, helicopters, which commonly cross through and around Washington, between military bases, the Pentagon and other locations, must fly in the world near the airport at a maximum of 200 feet.
“In DC, it’s type of a novel environment,” National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said at a briefing on Thursday afternoon. He noted that there are helicopter zones, or tracks, in Washington. “This one was transitioning from track one to 4 as a part of their normal procedure. Should you live in DC, you see a whole lot of helicopters happening into this area. So there is a thoroughly defined system.”
The FAA on Friday issued latest flight restrictions for helicopters across the the Washington, D.C., area and the Reagan National Airport, with some exceptions for medical evacuation and law enforcement operations, the agency told NBC News.
The airspace between certain bridges, or Zone 1, is currently not energetic. In nearby Zone 4, helicopters are only permitted to fly south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into the collision that led to a fireball. The agency said it continues to be gathering information and that it is just too early to attract conclusions.
“It is not that we do not have information. We do have information,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “We’ve got substantial amounts of data. We’d like to confirm information. We’d like to take our time to ensure that it’s accurate.”
The NTSB recovered flight data and cockpit voice recorder from the passenger jet. The boxes were taken to NTSB labs for evaluation, the agency said.
President Donald Trump on Friday wrote on Truth Social that the helicopter “was flying too high, by rather a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That is not likely too complicated to know, is it???”
Hegseth made the same statement at a White House briefing on Thursday.
“Tragically, last night a mistake was made,” he said. “There was some type of an elevation issue that we’ve immediately begun investigating on the DoD and Army level.”
