(WASHINGTON) — The midair collision Wednesday night between a regional American Airlines passenger jet and a Black Hawk military helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., was “absolutely” preventable, newly appointed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said Thursday.
The 64 passengers and crew on board the commercial aircraft and the three crew members on board the military helicopter were all killed.
Duffy said Thursday the skies over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were clear and the final runway approach of Flight 5342, which departed from Wichita, Kansas, was “standard,” as was the flight pattern of the military helicopter.
“Obviously, it is not standard to have aircraft collide. I want to be clear on that,” Duffy said. “But prior to the collision, the flight paths that were being flown from the military and from American, that was not unusual for what happens in the D.C. airspace.”
Asked by reporters whether the crash was avoidable, Duffy said it “absolutely” was.
Duffy’s comments came after President Donald Trump posted a statement on his Truth Social platform, questioning why the control tower didn’t wave off the military helicopter from the flight path of the American Airlines jet.
“It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!,” Trump wrote.
In a press conference from the White House later Thursday morning, Trump called the collision a “tragedy of terrible proportions,” and also used the briefing to go on the offensive against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, claiming that the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) DEI hiring plan was to blame for the collision.
When pressed by ABC News’ Mary Bruce, Trump said that “we don’t know” what caused the crash and added that they’re still looking into it. He later said he concluded DEI policies were to blame because he has “common sense.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spoke at the president’s press conference and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. He also said the collision would be investigated.
“The military does dangerous things, it does routine things on a regular basis,” Hegseth said, in part. “Tragically, last night a mistake was made.”
Investigation into cause underway
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, announced Thursday evening that investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder — commonly known as the black boxes — from the submerged jet and had taken them to the agency’s labs for evaluation.
The helicopter’s black box has still not been found, Hegseth told “Fox & Friends” on Friday.
Members of the NTSB said at a news conference Thursday that the agency has just started its probe and will not speculate on possible causes of the collision until the information collected is verified.
“We are all here because this is an all-hands-on-deck event,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, noting that all members of the board were at the news conference. “And we’re here to assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation. We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts.”
Homendy said that 50 NTSB investigators are being deployed to examine everything from the mechanics of the two aircraft involved to whether human error played a role in the incident.
Homendy added that earlier Thursday she briefed President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the crash.
NTSB board member Todd Inman said during the press briefing that the board intends to complete a preliminary report on the crash in 30 days.
“Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened and to recommend change to prevent it from happening again,” he said.
American Airlines will retire flight number 5342, the company said, which is standard action for major aviation disasters/incidents.
Runway 33 at DCA, the same runway where Flight 5342 had been cleared to land, will remain closed until Feb. 7, according to a NOTAM sent to pilots.
Air traffic control’s communications with Black Hawk crew
A recording released by LiveATC.net of the communications between Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport air traffic control and the Black Hawk helicopter indicates the military flight crew was aware of the American Airlines plane’s approach before the crash.
ATC is heard in the recording asking the crew of the helicopter, which the controller referred to as “PAT 25,” if the plane was visible.
“PAT 25, do you have CRJ in sight?” ATC said, using the initials for the make of the American Airlines aircraft, a Bombardier CRJ700.
Two seconds later, ATC provided instructions to the helicopter crew, saying, “PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ.” Three seconds later, the controller provides further instructions to the helicopter crew, saying, “PAT 25 has aircraft in sight – maintain visual separation.”
When pressed by reporters for details about the communications between ATC and the helicopter, Duffy said, “I would say the helicopter was aware there was a plane in the area.”
Duffy said it remains under investigation why the helicopter continued to fly into the path of the passenger plane.
Hegseth told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that they will be looking at whether the helicopter was flying at the right altitude and if it was on course. They are also looking into the communications between the helicopter and air traffic control.
The airport tower had combined two controller positions into one position prior to the crash, according to a source with direct knowledge.
When aircraft volume goes down, a supervisor can decide to combine two controller positions into one position. This happens routinely, though on Wednesday at Reagan Airport, it happened 40 minutes earlier than it normally does because the supervisor determined that the traffic was low enough to combine, according to the source.
This position handles local arrivals into Reagan and helicopter traffic when it’s combined.
Reagan is not understaffed, the source added.
‘No survivors’
Security video obtained by ABC News captured the first major U.S. air disaster in nearly 16 years. Video footage showed Flight 5342 making its final approach to Reagan National when it was struck by the Black Hawk helicopter, which was traveling south.
Duffy said the Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission at the time of the crash but did not elaborate.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with assistance from the military and the FAA.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the captain of Flight 5342 had been flying for the American Airlines regional carrier PSA Airlines for six years and that the first officer had been with the airline for two years.
“At this point, we don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident,” Fire Chief John Donnelly of the Washington, D.C. Fire Department said at Thursday morning’s news conference.
Donnelly said first responders who arrived at the scene within 10 minutes of the crash found the airplane “inverted” in three pieces in waist-high water in the Potomac. He said the helicopter was discovered nearby.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said he was familiar with the American Airlines flight from Wichita to Washington, D.C., adding, “I’ve flown it many times myself.”
“I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct, nonstop flight service to DCA,” Moran said of the route, which has been operating for about one year.
“It is certainly true that in Kansas and Wichita in particular, we’re going to know people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. So this is a very personal circumstance, as well as an official response,” Moran added.
The Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, according to an Army official. “We are working with local officials and will provide additional information once it becomes available,” the official said.
At the time of the crash, the water temperature in the Potomac River was approximately 36 degrees Fahrenheit, while the air temperature at the time of the crash was 50 degrees with winds gusting at 25 to 30 mph.
This is the first major commercial airplane crash in the United States since the Colgan Air crash near Buffalo, New York, in 2009.
At least 19 aircraft that were in the air and due to land at Reagan National Airport had to be diverted after the midair collision, according to Jack Potter, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The diverted flights landed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
Trump released an earlier statement following the crash Wednesday night.
“I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls.
Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise,” he wrote.
Military helicopter crew equipped with night vision goggles
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Army and Defense Department would “immediately” launch an investigation into the collision.
“Absolutely tragic. Search and rescue efforts still ongoing. Prayers for all impacted souls, and their families. Investigation launched immediately by Army & DoD,” Hegseth wrote on X just after midnight ET Thursday.
The Army helicopter was on an “annual proficiency training flight” at the time of the crash, Hegseth said in a video message he later posted.
“It was a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation,” Hegseth said. “They did have night vision goggles.”
‘Very serious crew’
Jonathan Koziol, a retired Army chief warrant officer with more than 30 years of flight experience who now serves as Headquarters Department of the Army Aviation Directorate chief of staff, told reporters in a briefing Thursday afternoon that the Black
Hawk crew was on a nighttime qualification flight with an instructor pilot evaluating an experienced pilot on the flight routes that their unit routinely flies day and night around the Potomac River.
Koziol confirmed that the instructor pilot had more than 1,000 flight hours in a Black Hawk and that the pilot being evaluated had more than 500 hours in the aircraft. The evaluated pilot was in command of the flight but if an emergency were to occur the instructor would have taken control of the helicopter, Koziol said.
The maximum altitude for the route the Black Hawk was flying is 200 feet, Koziol said.
“Very serious crew, even the crew chief in the back has been in the unit for a very long time, very familiar with the area, very familiar with the routing structure,” Koziol said. “So we don’t see that at all as being any impact on what happened today or last night.
And both pilots had flown this specific route before at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them.”
Koziol added, “These are our top pilots doing this mission in the National Capital Region.”
Koziol said the crew was likely using night vision goggles during the training mission, saying, “They are helpful at night, obviously, and in an urban environment, they’re still useful.”
But Koziol added that on such training missions, pilots being evaluated also have a requirement to fly “night unaided,” meaning without night vision goggles. It remained unclear Thursday if that was the case with the crew of the Black Hawk involved in the collision.
‘All those lives are so valuable’
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said “Extensive resources are fully supporting the search and rescue efforts” following the crash.
“First responders from across Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland mobilized quickly,” he said on X. “I ask everyone to pray for the passengers, crews, their families, and brave first responders.”
Wichita Mayor Lily Wu discussed the reality of people from her community being on the flight, noting that the first direct flight from Wichita to the nation’s capital, which began daily service on Jan. 8, 2024, coincided with her first day in office.
“Our entire community right now is praying, hoping for better news,” Wu told ABC News. “But as a community, the entire city of Wichita, the city council members and the staff all throughout the city of Wichita are hoping that we have better news to come out of this.”
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said in a social media post, “When one person dies, it’s a tragedy. But when many, many, many people die, it’s an unbearable sorrow.”
Speaking of the pilots, flight attendants and military personnel, Marshall added, “All those lives are so valuable, and it is such a tragedy that we lost them.”
Several figure skaters — including some young athletes called the “rising stars” of the sport — are among the victims of the crash, officials said.
Inman said the NTSB was going to brief the families of those killed in the collision on Thursday, adding that some were still making their way to Washington, D.C.
“The loss of life in an aviation accident is very unusual in the United States and our heartfelt sorrow goes out to everyone that’s affected. It affects us, it affects everyone around us,” an emotional Inman said. “We will find out what happened. We will do it factually and accurately.”
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
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