What to know about the deadly crash between a jet and a helicopter

Washington: A jet with 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter crewed by three soldiers while approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, sending the two aircraft plummeting into the Potomac River and killing everyone on board.

The collision occurred about 9pm on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) in one of the world’s most tightly controlled airspaces, just five kilometres south of the White House and the US Capitol. A search-and-rescue effort has turned into a recovery operation. The cause was not immediately clear.

Wreckage lies in the Potomac River after the collision between the American Airlines flight and a military Black Hawk helicopter in Washington.Credit: US Coast Guard/Getty Images

Here are some things to know about the collision:

How did the crash occur?

The collision involved a regional jet arriving from Wichita, Kansas, that was preparing to land and a military helicopter that was on a training exercise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Skies were clear at the time.

A few minutes before the jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked American Airlines Flight 5342 if it could do so on a shorter runway, and the pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the jet to land and flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.

Less than 30 seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, saying, “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ” – apparently telling it to wait for the Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet to pass. There was no reply, and the aircraft collided seconds later.

The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2400 feet (732 metres) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the Potomac. The body of the plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, officials said.

The helicopter’s wreckage was also found in the river.

NTSB officials said they were working to recover the data-recording equipment from both aircraft.

President Trump takes questions from reporters about the collision on Friday.Credit: Getty Images

What have the government and Trump said about it?

Federal investigators will try to piece together the moments before the collision, including any communication between the two aircraft and air traffic controllers, as well as other pilot actions and the altitude of both aircraft.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they would have a preliminary report within 30 days. They said they had not yet recovered the “black boxes” on the aircraft that record flight data.

With the investigation in its early stages, the NTSB said its priorities were recovering victims’ bodies, searching for the black boxes and preserving evidence at the scene.

One air traffic controller was responsible for co-ordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to an FAA report obtained by The Associated Press.

The work is normally assigned to two people in the tower, so the configuration was “not normal,” the report said. But a person familiar with the matter said staffing at the tower on the night was at a normal level.

The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, are in the process of a shift change, or air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.

Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, said the helicopter crew was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around Washington.

Rescuers search the wreckage site in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Airport.Credit: AP

President Donald Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Secretary of the Army nominee Daniel Driscoll said it appeared that the crash could have been avoided.

At a news conference, Trump – without evidence – cast blame on the helicopter pilots and baselessly alleged that diversity initiatives had undermined air safety.

Later, Trump signed a presidential memorandum on aviation safety that he said would undo “damage” done to related federal agencies by the Biden administration. Trump again criticised policies meant to promote diversity and inclusion – drawing criticism from black lawmakers.

Trump signs a memorandum on aviation safety he claimed would end diversity policies and make aviation safer.Credit: AP

Who were the victims, and how many were onboard?

The crash was the deadliest in the US in nearly 24 years. At least 28 bodies have been pulled from the icy waters, including the bodies of the three soldiers who were on the helicopter.

Among the passengers were members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from a development camp that followed the 2025 US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.

They included teenage figure skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, the teens’ mothers, and two highly regarded Russian-born coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won a 1994 world championship in pairs skating.

Other Russians were also on the jet, according to the Kremlin.

Also onboard was Asra Hussain Raza, 26, who earned her master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and got a job with a consulting group in Washington, with the ultimate goal of working for the government to improve public health, her father-in-law said.

Washington air crash victims (from left): skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, and coaches Vadim Naumov (left) and Evgenia Shishkova.Credit: AP

“All she wanted to do was help people, and DC, she thought, was the place to achieve her goals,” Hashim Raza said. She travelled to Wichita once or twice a month to help turn around a hospital, he said.

Where is Ronald Reagan International Airport?

Located along the Potomac River just south-west of Washington, Reagan Airport is a popular choice because it’s much closer to the city than the larger Dulles International Airport.

It has now reopened after all take-offs and landings were halted.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference that before the collision, the plane and helicopter flight paths “were not unusual for what happens in the DC airspace”.

The air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington DC.Credit: Bloomberg

“I would just say that everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely,” he said. “That when you depart an airport, you get to your destination. That didn’t happen last night, and I know that President [Donald] Trump, his administration, the FAA, the Department of Transport, we will not rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public.”

Federal authorities and aviation experts have expressed concerns about an increase in close calls between planes.

At Reagan Airport in May, an American Airlines plane cancelled its take-off to avoid colliding with another aircraft landing on an intersecting runway. It was the second close call at the airport in six weeks.

What aircraft were involved?

The helicopter was a UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, according to the Army.

The plane was a Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet and was manufactured in 2004. It can carry up to 70 passengers.

A US Black Hawk helicopter.Credit: AP

How many other fatal aircraft crashes have happened in the US?

This is the deadliest US air disaster since 2001. Fatal crashes of commercial aircraft in the US have been rare in recent years. The last major crash was in 2009 near Buffalo, New York, when a Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane crashed into a house, killing 45 passengers, four crew members, and one person on the ground.

In November 2001, an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of New York just after take-off from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard.

The collision on Wednesday recalled the crash of an Air Florida flight that plummeted into the Potomac on January 13, 1982, killing 78 people. That crash was attributed to bad weather.

AP, Reuters

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