Commercial Jet Collides with Police Chopper Near Reagan Airport – Mediaite
A passenger jet collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan Airport on January 29, 2025. Flights were suspended for search and rescue, with no confirmed casualties reported yet.
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A passenger jet collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in northern Virginia on January 29, 2025. The incident occurred as the jet was inbound from Wichita, Kansas. Following the collision, flights at the airport were suspended while search and rescue teams began operations in the Potomac River to locate potential survivors. Preliminary reports from the Federal Aviation Administration indicated that the aircraft involved was a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet. Eyewitnesses described a significant explosion and a loud noise at the time of the crash. Webcam footage captured the explosion in mid-air, and subsequent images showed helicopters conducting search and rescue missions over the river. As of now, there are no confirmed reports of casualties, and the situation remains under investigation.
- A passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter collided near Reagan Airport.
- Flights at the airport have been halted for search and rescue operations.
- The aircraft involved was identified as a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700.
- Eyewitnesses reported a loud explosion and significant crash.
- The situation is still developing with no confirmed casualties reported.
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- Many commenters express frustration over air traffic control (ATC) issues, citing recent near misses and the need for more controllers.
- There is a significant focus on the implications of the incident for aviation safety regulations and potential policy changes.
- Several users discuss the complexities of flying in the Washington, D.C. airspace, highlighting the challenges posed by military operations and congested air traffic.
- Some comments speculate about the causes of the accident, including the role of the FAA and recent leadership changes.
- There is a general sense of sadness and concern for the victims, with hopes for survivors despite the harsh conditions.
54 commentsI should mention that in the recording you can only hear one side of the conversation, so I don’t know whether or not the helicopter said whether or not they had visual contact with the plane they collided with.
Either way it doesn’t seem to be the fault of ATC. Of course we’ll know more as additional information becomes available.
~The flight track of the helicopter [2] starts at a property in McLean, VA (edited to remove likely inaccurate info)~
The chopper was based out of Fort Belvoir, and based on similar past flight tracks, looks like it probably took off from there too. CNN is reporting that there were 3 soldiers onboard, and no VIPs.
1: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_VH-60N_White_Hawk
2: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae313d&lat=38.952&lon=-...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-30/washingto... | https://archive.today/n1ark
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/plane-crash-dca-potomac-was... (CNN live updates)
https://old.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1idbkyd/crash_at_dc...
https://old.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1idba8i/plane_cra...
https://x.com/aletweetsnews/status/1884789306645983319
https://archive.liveatc.net/kdca/KDCA1-Twr-Jan-30-2025-0130Z... | https://web.archive.org/web/20250130025411/https://archive.l... (event starts at 17:25)
Also, it appears that one of the aircraft was a military (not police) H-60 Blackhawk helicopter.
Given the uptick in near miss incidents across the US the last few years, this is the kind of incident that should've been entirely avoidable through changes in policy from these past events but is also apparently the only kind that can spur along policy changes. I can see a world where the fault is on the VH-60, but absent more information, it would surprise me less to hear that it's the fault of the tower.
Knowing where AA5342 was in its approach, I see no possibility of the jet being at fault.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL5342
I'm drawing a lot of early conclusions but it's mostly because I'm just not surprised. Angry as someone who flies a bunch, but not surprised.
It's all pretty much wild speculation with several potential causes already mentioned on this forum.
News important yes, every rando with a few shreds of factoids speculating, not so much.
Texted my friends that fly that route regularly and most have texted back.
It can all be gone in an instant, tell those you love what they mean to you.
edit: everyone is accounted for
The secondary runway is set at a diagonal NW/SE. Planes flying an approach from the south follow the river at first, but then loop out over the eastern shore of the river to line up on that runway. To my eye the radar track of the downed flight follows this path. It’s possible since it was a small plane and only small planes can use the diagonal runway—it’s shorter.
I mention this because this track takes planes into airspace that is a) usually clear of commercial airplane traffic, and b) directly over military facilities like Naval Research Lab and Joint Base Bolling, which have significant military helicopter travel.
Basically, I wonder to what extent the helicopter pilot was surprised to find an airplane descending in that location.
[1] When flights are approaching from the north, the main runway requires a pretty sharp right turn seconds before touching down. Approaches to the diagonal runway from the north take planes almost directly over the Pentagon.
My house in DC has calmed down some but we had a bunch of low flying fighters jets & helicopters for a bit. It's been wild having the house shaken at noon or 1:00 from pairs of fighter jets!
I've had an in-week around Tysons this week, and it's been wild seeing pair after pair after pair of helicopter flying east towards the city this week. I'm normally up there once or twice a week and usually there's nothing like this.
We like to throw shade at Boeing, the FAA etc, but this is still an incredible accomplishment, especially given the explosive growth of traffic over those years. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, there were far fewer flights but multiple crashes every year was the norm.
Not sure how they or the Army transition the approach ends to the runways, but it’s really close.
UHF feed with comms from the military helicopter: https://archives.broadcastify.com/44114/20250129/20250129200...
- 5:41 - AA5342 is given instructions for circling to 33
- 6:45 - PAT-25 reports Memorial
- 7:06 - Tower gives PAT-25 traffic advisory, PAT-25 reports traffic in sight and requests visual separation
- 8:08 - Tower asks PAT-25 if they have the CRJ in sight. PAT-25 again reports traffic in sight and again requests visual separation
- 8:23 - Crash occurs
January 20: FAA director fired
January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring freeze
January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
FR24 shows helicopters from various agencies doing many laps around the site, presumably looking for survivors.
Sounds like maybe the ADSB was on in this case though.
That said, DC airspace is complicated as hell. You've got very heavily restricted airspace over the city immediately east. VIP natsec/military base facilities on the other side of the Potomac. There are major highways to the north, west, and south of all the approaches. The standard route and safety corridor is along the Potomac river, which is heavily trafficked at all altitudes, with commercial, law enforcement, military, and VIP transport. The CIA is 5 miles up the river and is hardly gonna thank you for dropping out of the sky with no notice. Not an easy place to fly.
[1] https://www.pprune.org/accidents-close-calls/663888-aa5342-d...
Here on HN someone mentioned after a recent (last year) near miss that the US system was overloading the system and that some tragedy might be incoming. Maybe of the most insightful and heart breaking “competency crisis” related posts I’ve encountered.
This helicopter was often utilized for VIP transport.
From the BBC. I swear to god they made 4chan president of America.
* https://newrepublic.com/post/190942/faa-no-leader-dc-plane-c...
"FAA Administrator Quit on Jan. 20 After Elon Musk Told Him to Resign":
* https://www.thedailybeast.com/faa-chief-michael-whitaker-qui...
"The FAA is facing a major crisis without a leader because Elon Musk pushed him out*
* https://www.theverge.com/news/603113/faa-chief-musk-dc-plane...
Flights at the airport have been halted.
The problem I see is the controller asked the Helicopter if they had the CRJ in sight, but he never said WHERE HE WAS OR WHAT HE WAS DOING! The controller should have told the Helicopter that the CRJ was circling to RWY 33. The helicopter said he had him in sight, but he really had the Jet in sight that was landing on RWY 1.
Had the controller told him: Traffic ahead and to your left landing runway 33 is a CRJ report him in sight, then the helicopter crew would have LOOKED to their left and saw him. They unfortunately were looking straight ahead at a different plane.
The controller is going to take a major blame for this one unfortunately for not being more detailed. Those Helicopters literally fly directly in the path of those RWY 33 arrivals so as a controller you have to be EXACT!!!!
Another problem I see is the expectation bias. As controllers in that scenario, we want to hear the Helicopter say "traffic in sight and we will maintain Visual Separation. These Helicopter Pilots know we need to hear them say that (it's required), so they will say this just because even though they might not really have the aircraft in sight. They are just saying what we want to hear. If they don't, then we stop their forward progress or make them turn out. Comment from instagram
Its crazy to have things colliding like this.
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