All flights halted at Reagan National Airport due to plane crash

[mystery-ak]

Two planes aborted landings at DCA due to helicopters in flight path in week before crash: report

Military helicopter flights forced at least two planes to abort landings at Reagan National Airport in the week before a deadly collision presumably killed 67 people on Wednesday, according to a report.

On Tuesday night, just one day before the collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, a different plane alerted the air traffic control tower that it had to abort its landing to avoid collision with a helicopter, the Washington Post reported.

Yet another plane arriving at DCA from Charlotte scrubbed its landing on Jan. 23, again because of a helicopter.

"They had to circle back around because there was a helicopter in the flight path," said RIchard Hart, a passenger on the Jan. 23 flight who spoke to the Washington Post. "At the time I found it odd. ... Now I find it disturbingly tragic."

The two close calls came within a week of Wednesday's horrifying collision, in which an inbound commercial flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River. A total of 64 people, including four crew members, were aboard passenger American Airlines Flight 5342, and three soldiers were on the Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that came from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. All are presumed dead.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo

[mystery-ak]

Video: New Angle Shows How Midair Washington Plane-Helicopter Crash Unfolded

Simon Kent 31 Jan 2025

New vision has been released purporting to show the midair collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter over Washington on Wednesday night from a new angle.

As Breitbart News reported, American Airlines flight 5342, with 60 passengers and four crew, was in the final minutes of its journey from Wichita, Kansas — where some figure skaters onboard had taken part in a competition and training camp.

Meanwhile, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with three military personnel was flying at the same altitude over the Potomac River during what was described as a routine nighttime training flight.

The two collided with deadly results. Watch below as the new vision unfolds:

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1885300723845411162

more
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/31/video-new-angle-shows-how-midair-washington-plane-helicopter-crash-unfolded/

[mystery-ak]

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1885306661834785082

[MeganC]

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1885306661834785082

Those poor people.

[Wingnut]

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1885306661834785082

Holy shit.  The people on the plane didn't know what hit them.  Hope they didn't suffer.

[rangerrebew]

Midair Collision Draws Attention to Military Helicopter Training and Previous Accidents
 
Associated Press | By Ben Finley and Dylan Lovan
Published January 31, 2025 at 9:22am ET

To learn to fly a military helicopter is to take a master class in multitasking.

You need both hands and both feet to control the aircraft while keeping a close eye on the horizon and your altitude. If it's nighttime and you're flying low, you may be scanning the ground for familiar landmarks using night-vision goggles while also checking GPS instruments.
 
“You have six to seven radios to mess with,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Darin Gaub, who flew Black Hawk helicopters for 22 years. “You're using everything. And by the way, you’re also supposed to fly the aircraft, which is why most military aircraft are crewed by a minimum of two pilots.”

The training for U.S. military helicopter pilots is getting heightened attention in the wake of Wednesday night's fatal midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet in the skies above Washington.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/01/31/midair-collision-draws-attention-military-helicopter-training-and-previous-accidents.html

[American Girl]

Excerpt:
New footage has emerged showing the shocking mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. The horrifying crash left no survivors, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.

The latest reports suggest that the Black Hawk may have been off its approved flight path before the collision, raising serious questions about what really happened in the moments leading up to the tragedy. The helicopter was reportedly flying at a higher altitude than expected, according to sources familiar with the preliminary FAA investigation.





The airplane is on a path. Helicopter with maneuverability does not attempt to miss the plane. We need to know why.

How it looks is, bad.

Was this a Swiss cheese scenario, or was it deliberate?

https://conservativeus.com/breaking-video-chilling-new-angle-emerges-of-dc-mid-air-collision-whats-up-with-that-blackhawk/

[Timber Rattler]

The pilots and crew chief were looking at the wrong plane, either in front departing or behind incoming (after being alerted by ATC), and couldn't see its landing lights pointed perpendicularly away toward the runway on approach.  Wrong place, wrong time.

[DB]

Also very odd is that the helicopter increased altitude immediately before the collision (according the tracking data shown up thread), and they were flying well above their allowed ceiling before doing that.

[Timber Rattler]

Also very odd is that the helicopter increased altitude immediately before the collision (according the tracking data shown up thread), and they were flying well above their allowed ceiling before doing that.

Reacting to the previous alert by ATC, and looking at the wrong plane or planes.

[DB]

Reacting to the previous alert by ATC, and looking at the wrong plane or planes.

Increasing altitude to avoid something while already flying 100' higher than they were supposed to??? That doesn't make sense.

[Bigun]

Reacting to the previous alert by ATC, and looking at the wrong plane or planes.

Or intentionally flying into the plane. I don't know yet and neither do you.

[DB]

The pilots and crew chief were looking at the wrong plane, either in front departing or behind incoming (after being alerted by ATC), and couldn't see its landing lights pointed perpendicularly away toward the runway on approach.  Wrong place, wrong time.

Had they been flying at or below the maximum altitude they were assigned to it wouldn't have mattered what they were looking at.

[bigheadfred]

Why were they looking downstream instead of upstream?

[mystery-ak]

Black Hawk was training to evacuate government VIPs in emergency, Hegseth says

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed to Fox News on Friday more details about the training flight that the Army Black Hawk helicopter was taking earlier this week when it collided with an American Airlines passenger jet.

“Without getting anything into anything that's classified, there are many things that happen in and around the Capitol that ensure in a contingency, in an emergency, our government is able to continue to operate,” Hegseth said. “And what happened in this particular instance was one of those types of flights.

“I mentioned it at the press conference yesterday, a continuity of government. There are other aspects to what is done there and you need to train as you fight. You need to rehearse in ways that would reflect a real-world scenario,” Hegseth added.
Posted by Greg Norman

[mystery-ak]

Plane wreckage is seen Thursday in the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport. (Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles, U.S. Coast Guard via AP)

[mystery-ak]

Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, half-mile off predetermined route when it crashed with American Airlines flight mid-air: report

"The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???"

The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines flight on Wednesday night, resulting in a fireball over the Potomac River just outside of Washington, DC’s Reagan National Airport, was reportedly flying outside its approved flight path and too high.

Four people briefed on the matter told the New York Times that the helicopter was supposed to be flying lower to the ground and in a different location as it flew around the busy airport. The helicopter pilot had asked the air traffic controller for permission to use Route 4 at Reagan, a specific, predetermined route on the Potomac that lets helicopters fly no higher than 200 feet and hugs the east side of the river. The route would have let the helicopter avoid the flight.

https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1885335062956093742

more
https://thepostmillennial.com/black-hawk-helicopter-was-flying-too-high-half-mile-off-predetermined-route-when-it-crashed-with-american-airlines-flight-mid-air-report?utm_campaign=64501

[Sighlass]

Previously in thread someone mentioned there was no "black box" on the helicopter.... does that still hold true?

A senior Army official who spoke with the outlet cautioned against making any assessments until the helicopter’s black box could be retrieved and analyzed

https://thepostmillennial.com/black-hawk-helicopter-was-flying-too-high-half-mile-off-predetermined-route-when-it-crashed-with-american-airlines-flight-mid-air-report

[Smokin Joe]

My vote is on Swiss cheese, with something else.
It is easy to get a little lax about some things, most everyone does it.

But, if you get away with that once, it will likely become the 'new normal', and the next small digression from proper procedure isn't just a 'little bit', but amplified by the previous digression now accepted as 'normal'.

Add a couple or three layers of that, and 'suddenly' everything is out of spec, sometimes tragically.

Not sure that is the case, here, but for all but the most intensely disciplined, it's human nature.

[MeganC]

I am just going to toss this out there that maybe it's time to close the Reagan Airport and open a new airport somewhere that isn't seconds away (by air) from our nation's most sensitive and important sites.

[mystery-ak]

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1885410502513234140

[mountaineer]

I am just going to toss this out there that maybe it's time to close the Reagan Airport and open a new airport somewhere that isn't seconds away (by air) from our nation's most sensitive and important sites.

I've seen that suggested elsewhere - have all the large commercial planes use Dulles instead of Reagan. Of course, the congressional bigwigs won't like that, because they'll have to go out of their way to get to the airport.

[mystery-ak]

16 min(s) ago
Family of third soldier killed requesting Army not release name

The family of the third solider killed in Wednesday's deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is requesting their identity not be publicly released, the Army said Friday.

The Army has named the other soldiers killed in the collision. They were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O'Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia.

Eaves' remains have not been recovered. He served in the Navy from August 2007 to September 2017 before transitioning to a Black Hawk pilot for the Army in September 2017.

O’Hara began serving as Black Hawk helicopter mechanic in July 2014.
Posted by Louis Casiano

[DB]

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1885410502513234140

It certainly had the looks of that. But we simply don't know. Hopefully there will be enough information to determine that with certainty, one way or the other.

[mystery-ak]

A riverkeeper who routinely patrols the Potomac River reportedly found multiple items belonging to the American Airlines plane after it crashed Wednesday night, including pages from a flight manual, a woman’s sweater and what appeared to be the cushion from a pilot’s seat.

Dean Naujoks of the environmental group Potomac Riverkeeper told the Associated Press that he discovered the items near the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge – about two miles away from the crash site – and that they have been handed over to the FBI. He reportedly got permission to take his boat to the scene and found the items in shallow coves.

“Everything is covered in jet fuel,” Naujoks said. “I’m thinking of the people these things belonged to and it’s a punch to the gut. It’s just a sad day on the river.”

Naujoks also said he recovered a piece of the interior wall from the passenger cabin that had surrounded a window.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted by Greg Norman