American Airlines crash at Reagan international 29 Jan 2025

[dapaterson]

Reports that an American Eagle CRJ700 collided with a a DC Police helicopter when on approach, and crashed into the Potomac.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884790995444760833

 

[dapaterson]

Reports now saying it was a US Army Blackhawk, not a police helicopter.

 

[brihard]

I’m reading US Army Blackhawk in VIP configuration, PAT25. There’s video; looks like the UH-60 flew right into the path of a Bombardier CRJ-700. They fireballed and went into the Potomac.

 

[brihard]

Dash cam video. Doesn’t look good.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884812906333622495

 

[OldSolduer]

Who was on that Blackhawk??

 

[Remius]

Who was on that Blackhawk??

Apparently a training flight. 4 crew

 

[OldSolduer]

Apparently a training flight. 4 crew

I just saw the news. It said three but still this is a tragedy
My condolences to all the families

 

[vonGarvin]

I feel sick to my stomach. I have flown into and out of DCA several times, most recently on Monday.

 

[Baz]

It’s very easy to imagine how this could be nothing but a horrible accident before we “look for some bastardized to string up.” Crew got disoriented, it wasn’t clear to ATC which way would be safest to turn the 60, so the asked them to “see an avoid.” As aircraft was approaching from behind hard to pick up, given the city lights. Without seeing it, avoidance is hard (because whatever you do might make it worse). So do nothing…

Or maybe they did the wrong thing…

Or maybe both airplanes saw each other and “avoided “ each other…

So, let’s let the investigators do their jobs, unless they’ve all been fired as well.

 

[daftandbarmy]

No survivors. Most of those on the passenger jet were returning from a skating camp...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884950898708721850

 

[vonGarvin]

It’s very easy to imagine how this could be nothing but a horrible accident before we “look for some bastardized to string up.” Crew got disoriented, it wasn’t clear to ATC which way would be safest to turn the 60, so the asked them to “see an avoid.” As aircraft was approaching from behind hard to pick up, given the city lights. Without seeing it, avoidance is hard (because whatever you do might make it worse). So do nothing…

Or maybe they did the wrong thing…

Or maybe both airplanes saw each other and “avoided “ each other…

So, let’s let the investigators do their jobs, unless they’ve all been fired as well.

There is so much light pollution there, it would be easy to miss that UH 60 amongst the clutter of DC off to the jet's right. And during landing, I'm sure the pilot and crew are focused on plenty of things, and not checking left and right for possible collisions.

And no, not all investigators have been fired, FFS.

 

[Baz]

For those that are interested, VASAviation has Audio of MID-AIR CRASH into Potomac River | Regional Jet and Black Hawk Helicopter on YouTube.

I think there is going to be a lot of interest as to why aircraft shoot the IFR to runway 01 and then a visual dogleg to 33. 33 seems to be used at night for noise abatement over the Mall instead of 01. From the helo's point of view they were passing port to port and the aircraft turned in on them for 33; however, they should have been aware that they were going to turn in and were told to pass behind them.

This is going to be a relatively complex investigation, and I'm pretty sure that there's going to be a close look at procedures at Reagan.

 

[Good2Golf]

There is so much light pollution there, it would be easy to miss that UH 60 amongst the clutter of DC off to the jet's right. And during landing, I'm sure the pilot and crew are focused on plenty of things, and not checking left and right for possible collisions.

And no, not all investigators have been fired, FFS.

VG, yes, done DCA as a pax many times (not quite as many as you) and also flying. The light pollution in the DC area is horrendous. Having flown there (DC and Fort Belvoir area) I’d actually prefer to fly down the Hudson or East Rivers in NYC, over DC.

See and avoid is a responsibility to all aircrew, however, ATC gave DIRECTION (in KDCA’s positive control zone) to PAT25 to proceed Southbound BEHIND AA5342, which was cleared to land on visual final approach to RWY33. The AA5342 crew were on very short final, within 10-15 seconds of touchdown, so without doubt the captain and first officer would have been focusing on the runway environment to land, and not off to their 2o’clock masked by the U.S. Capitol and FBI HQ, etc. For PAT25’s part, at that altitude on short final, AA5342 would have been backlit by a long wall of hotels and building in Crystal City, making visual identification difficult. Further compounding this is that aircraft on a collision course with each other do not visually move relatively in each other’s windscreen, they only get larger. The human eye is fairly decent at detecting relative motion, but incipient ‘static’ (relatively) growth of an apparently non-moving object is much harder to detect.

The NTSB investigation will analyze cause factors as to why, but factually it is clear the PAT25 did not proceed behind AA5342 as directed. No doubt there may be more regulations/procedures regarding flight ops in the DC area to come out of this, with an aim to avoid accidents like this in the future.

An absolute tragedy to be sure!


Edit to add: Will leave this here, but same link as Baz provided.
Not sure if the link will work, but an interesting view of the final secondary radar of DCA and associated ATC and pilot comms, showing the paths of AA4532 and PAT25.

 

[vonGarvin]

One point I failed to mention: UH 60s were designed to be difficult to see. :/

 

[PPCLI Guy]

It’s very easy to imagine how this could be nothing but a horrible accident before we “look for some bastardized to string up.”

Sadly, Trump laid the blame on Biden and Obama DEI hiring policies. That is completely beyond the Pale, but in keeping with the actions of a sociopath with Center of Attention Deficit Disorder. Remains were still being recovered while he politicized a tragedy.

As reported in the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/30/trump-dei-plane-crash/

First responders were still recovering bodies from the Potomac River Thursday when President Trump told the nation that his predecessors, Democrats and diversity were to blame for Wednesday night’s fatal collision of an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger plane landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Within five minutes after asking for a moment of silence for the victims, Trump pivoted to his political agenda, notably his hard-charging plan to reduce the federal bureaucracy and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs from all agencies. The president told reporters he had seen no evidence to attribute the crash to changes in hiring standards for air traffic controllers.

“It just could have been,” he said. “Because I have common sense.”

Trump made himself the face of the tragedy and the center of the story....
“We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,” he said. “And I think we'll probably state those opinions now, because over the years I've watched as things like this happen and they say, ‘Well, we're always investigating.’”

At turns, he raised the possibility of errors by air traffic control, managed by the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Army pilot, who was flying a routine training mission. But most of all, he pointed the finger at diversity programs under the Obama and Biden administrations that Trump targeted on Inauguration Day with several executive orders.

just horrifying

 

[Good2Golf]

That was a shameful take. He needs to STFU on that one.

As a past green-aviator, I have an uneasy feeling that I know where a notable portion of cause will be found in this tragedy.

 

[OldSolduer]

That was a shameful take. He needs to STFU on that one.

As a past green-aviator, I have an uneasy feeling that I know where a notable portion of cause will be found in this tragedy.

The Donald has spoken, and again its complete idiocy. Was he never told sometimes its better to be seen and not heard?

 

[Baz]

There’s a history of keeping that airport open requiring balancing what should be IFR traffic approaches and departures, a lot of VFR traffic, including VIP, noise abatement, and political “needs.” Maybe they’ll get a better balance after this, but I doubt it.

 

[OldSolduer]

There’s a history of keeping that airport open requiring balancing what should be IFR traffic approaches and departures, a lot of VFR traffic, including VIP, noise abatement, and political “needs.” Maybe they’ll get a better balance after this, but I doubt it.

So is this a common thing? An airport in a fairly built up urban area? Edmonton comes to mind.

 

[Baz]

So is this a common thing? An airport in a fairly built up urban area? Edmonton comes to mind.

an airport in a built up area is common. Being right next to a low level VFR route not as much; New Yorks airports aren’t right on the VFR routes. Doing a dogleg visual line up right before the runway, above the same river the marks the VFR route is quite rare.