Washington air crash: ‘This is the most protected air space in the country’

In one of the most regulated air corridors in the world, what went wrong that led an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, to collide with an army Black Hawk helicopter?

The debris of the American Airlines plane in the Potomac River in Washington. Picture: Getty Images

Standing in the cold night air by the icy shores of the Potomac, onlookers asked: how was this tragedy possible?

In one of the most regulated air corridors in the world, what went wrong that led an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, to collide with an army Black Hawk helicopter?

News of the mid-air collision was reverberating across the US on Wednesday night, local time, with inquisitive locals in Alexandria, Virginia, journeying out to the scene of the incident where the two aircraft collided above the Potomac and plunged into the waters below.

Shortly after the collision, a small crowd had gathered at the vantage point offered by the Daingerfield Island Marina, where they watched the massive search and rescue operation unfold in the darkness. Most were still processing the shock.

Some were thinking of the families of the 64 passengers and crew travelling on board American Airlines Flight 5432 who would have been waiting for their loved ones to arrive at Ronald Reagan Airport – only to learn they never would.

“Just got to pray for the families. Pray for the military people,” said local Nicholas Morales. “It was a Black Hawk – crashed directly into a Bombardier aeroplane … split in half. It’s supposedly laying in the river down there. And the helicopter’s upside down.”

Others were internally processing questions about how the incident could have happened at all, arguing it was important to discover what went wrong.

Bentley Hensel told The Australian he ran an ADS-B receiver site to “track aircraft” and received a “notification something was odd”.

He went down to the river where the ground was still partially crusted-over with ice from the recent polar vortex and watched boats go out and helicopters scan the dark waters below to try to recover any survivors.

“I’m curious what the flight plan of that Black Hawk was,” he said. “But (this is) the most protected air space in the country. This was shut down for quite a while after 9/11. And DCA (Ronald Reagan Airport) is … well, you don’t deviate from flight plans at DCA, just with how close it is to the capital. There’s a no fly-zone just right there, on the other side of the Potomac.

“The fact a mid-air collision happened here … many things went horrifically wrong for that to take place.”

Michael Flores, an Alexandria local, said when he learnt the news at about 9pm, his “initial thought was how was this happening?”

“How was it allowed to happen? I know it’s very strict to fly around here,” he said.

Mr Flores also noted the cold conditions would make things difficult if there were survivors from the collision thrown into the Potomac. “There’s still some left over snow … If you’re in the middle of the … current, with all your clothes on, you’d probably get pretty cold pretty fast.”