A military Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines passenger plane over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport. The plane had 60 passengers and four crew members. The helicopter had three people aboard. Washington D.C. authorities say that they now expect no survivors and the scene is now a recovery scene.
The plane was American Eagle flight 5342 traveling to Washington, D.C. from Wichita, Kansas. American Airlines has this sitededicated to further information.
According to reports, the control tower saw this coming and asked the helicopter: “Do you have the CRJ in sight?” CRJ is the Bombardier CRJ700 Regional Jet.
The crash happened at night but that hardly explains how this happened. Some reports show that the helicopter was “flying dark,” meaning it had its transponder off. In a crowded civilian airspace?
The Associated Press reports this:
“A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asks the helicopter if it has the arriving plane in sight. The controller makes another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that the two aircraft collide.”
The U.S. Army confirmed that the helicopter was from the U.S. Army and said that the three soldiers were aboard a training flight.
Air traffic control diverted all takeoffs and landings on Wednesday night and the airport was closed. One air traffic control transmission heard the tower tell a plane in the air that the airport was shutting down and the pilot replied, “Yeah. We witnessed the whole thing.”
The White House released this statement from the President Wednesday night. President Trump released this post on his own Truth Social page indicating that he has lingering questions and wants answers too.
