No survivors in midair collision  

News service illustration compiled from Google Images, Shutterstock.
News service illustration compiled from Google Images, Shutterstock.
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67 dead in crash near Reagan National involving military helicopter and passenger jet 

Compiled from contributing writers and news services 

As the multi-agency response shifted its focus from a rescue operation to a recovery operation Thursday in the Potomac River, it was announced there were no survivors in the Wednesday night collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight that had been preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 

The dead included the three-person crew of the helicopter, and 60 passengers and four crew aboard Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas. 

President Donald Trump gave a briefing from the White House on Thursday. He called the crash a “real tragedy” and said local, state, and federal officials had been mobilized for a “massive search and rescue mission.” 

“Sadly, there are no survivors. This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions,” he added. 

During his briefing, Trump criticized the Biden administration’s Federal Aviation Administration and its diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices. 

He accused former President Joe Biden of weakening hiring standards for air traffic controllers, alleging that the Transportation Department under secretary Pete Buttigieg prioritized hiring “[controllers] with severe disabilities.” 

“They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA program,” Trump alleged. “The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.” 

Trump later said that it might not have been the fault of air traffic controllers: “We don’t know that necessarily.” 

The National Transportation Safety Board has not completed its investigation and has yet to release any official causes for the accident. The NTSB announced on Thursday that it plans to release its preliminary report on the crash within 30 days. 

President Donald Trump participates in a moment of silence before a media briefing Jan. 30, 2025, on the crash involving a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport. White House screenshot via X.
President Donald Trump participates in a moment of silence before a media briefing Jan. 30, 2025, on the crash involving a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport. White House screenshot via X.

Focus Turns to Helicopter’s Altitude 

Attention has turned to the flight altitude of the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines jet near Ronald Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. 

The accident — the deadliest U.S. plane crash since November 2001 — occurred at around 9 p.m. ET. Based on flight data that has yet to be independently verified, the helicopter was operating at roughly 300 feet above the ground at the time of the collision. 

During the Thursday White House briefing, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that elevation played a role in the incident. 

“There was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DOD [Department of Defense] and Army level,” Hegseth said. 

The president said the “helicopter obviously was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

“I’m saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane being at the same level,” Trump said. 

NTSB member J. Todd Inman said the agency could not confirm the helicopter’s exact altitude at the time of the crash. 

“We can’t validate or basically corroborate any of that until we get more of the electronic data and the data that’s on the plane,” Inman told reporters at a press briefing. The NTSB had not yet recovered the plane’s black boxes, which are flight recorders used by investigators to determine the cause of aviation incidents. 

All military helicopters must adhere to a maximum allowed altitude, referred to as above ground level (AGL), when flying in specific airspace. 

Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, told The Associated Press that the Black Hawk’s maximum altitude for flying a corridor called Route 4, near Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Potomac River, is 200 feet above the ground. 

He said investigators must analyze the flight data before making conclusions about the helicopter’s altitude at the time of the collision. 

The Pentagon referred questions on the helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. 

During a follow-up briefing on Thursday afternoon, Trump asked why Air Traffic Control allowed the two aircraft to operate within the same altitude. 

“If a plane coming in is at 300 feet or 400 feet, and a helicopter is training at 300 or 400 feet, why wouldn’t they be up 500 feet higher?” Trump asked. “And that, to a certain extent, is the air traffic controller.” 

Elevation, Night Vision Issues 

On Thursday morning, Hegseth confirmed in a video briefing that the helicopter was conducting an “annual proficiency training flight” before the collision. 

Reagan National Airport not only sits at the edge of Washington, a dense city with copious street lights, but also possesses one of the busiest airspaces in the world. The runways are frequently congested, leading to a near collision between two jets in early 2024. 

Juan Browne, a pilot for a major U.S. airline, said in an interview that helicopters operating near commercial airports are meant to pass underneath airline traffic. However, if they were wearing night vision goggles, as Hegseth indicated on Thursday morning, that could have obscured the pilots’ view of the plane during its descent. 

“Landing light from the [airplane] would be blinding, completely washing out the NVGs of the helicopter,” Browne said. “All that backlighting of the city makes it very hard to pull out the profile of the [jet].” 

If the pilots were using NGVs at the time of the crash, “it would be a tremendous contributing factor,” Scott Seeberger, another pilot for a major U.S. airline and a former military pilot, said in an interview.  

Additionally, the airplane and helicopter would have transmitted at two different frequencies, with the jet on very high frequency and the Black Hawk on ultra high frequency, Browne said. While ATC would have access to both frequencies, the pilots aboard the two aircraft would not have been able to communicate. 

Aircraft Avoidance Alerts 

The two aircraft likely would have also possessed traffic collision avoidance systems, which alert pilots of incoming air traffic and tell them to “either climb or stand to avoid each other,” but it won’t advise turning left or right to avoid a collision, Browne said. The problem, he said, is that TCASs do not issue those advisories below 1,000 feet above the ground. 

At that altitude, “you are much too close to the ground to be issued a descending resolution advisory because you’re just going to run right into the water or the ground,” he said. “The only warning you would get at the last moment [is that] there is traffic, traffic on your screen.” 

While all commercial aircraft have TCASs installed, military aircraft often disable the system or turn it to standby, said Seeberger. He confirmed that TCASs are disabled below 1,000 feet. 

According to the helicopter ATC audio released on Wednesday night, the controller told the helicopter pilots to “pass behind” the airplane after asking them if they had it in sight. Seconds later, the two aircraft collided. 

There are also looming questions as to whether the helicopter’s radar altimeter, which tells the pilots their precise altitude above terrain below, was malfunctioning if the Black Hawk was higher than its maximum allowed elevation for that route. 

“It’s hard to believe the barometric altimeter setting would be that off for them to be up in 400 feet when they were supposed to be at [200 feet],” Seeberger said. “That’s certainly something investigators will have to look at.” 

Seeberger said the incident resulted from a “big airspace management issue,” as the helicopter was seemingly at an incorrect altitude. He said it should have been nowhere near the jet, well east of the Potomac River, and at a lower elevation. 

The NTSB investigators, Seeberger said, will have to determine if the helicopter pilots were following the correct flight procedures. 

While the Department of Defense likely would have directed the helicopter’s training exercise on Wednesday night, “certainly the FAA was aware [that] this particular mission was flying,” Seeberger said. 

Since the Black Hawk is a military aircraft, it likely did not have a flight recorder, Seeberger said, which makes it difficult for investigators to determine whether the pilots were following protocol. 

“Maybe one of the pilots was task saturated as they were coming down that segment of the Potomac, because something else was happening on flight deck,” he said. “The investigators will have to try to piece together whatever information they have to really create an accurate picture [of] what transpired.” 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a media briefing Jan. 30, 2025, on the crash involving a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport. White House screenshot via X.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a media briefing Jan. 30, 2025, on the crash involving a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport. White House screenshot via X.

Trump to Meet with Families of Crash Victims 

Trump said he intends to meet with the families of the victims of the collision. 

“I will be meeting with some people that were very badly hurt, with the family members,” Trump said. 

He declined to comment if he had already spoken with any of the families, or to give any further information when asked about the victims’ identities. 

“I have the full details,” he told reporters present at the Oval Office, promising to give more information later. 

“Young people, great people, great athletes, great skaters. Very sad situation … from numerous countries,” the president said. 

Names of Crash Victims Expected on Friday Afternoon 

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told reporters on Thursday evening that state officials expect American Airlines to release the names of the victims of Flight 5342 sometime on Friday. 

Kelly said the National Transportation Committee Board informed her that some plane passengers were from overseas, and their family members have not yet been notified. 

“They needed to get in touch with those families over there, but they expected that we’d likely have the manifest sometime tomorrow afternoon,” Kelly said. 

Jesse Romo, the director of airports at two Wichita airports, told reporters that there is no investigation in Wichita regarding the midair crash that involved a commercial flight originating in Kansas. 

According to Romo, there were no signs of trouble at takeoff for the flight. 

“We didn’t receive any reports of any abnormalities in the operation with that aircraft boarding or departing from Wichita,” Romo said. “And so the investigation will occur at the site of the incident, which is handled by all the entities there.” 

Trump Responds to Reported Staff Shortage in Control Tower During Crash 

Trump told reporters he was unaware of an alleged staff shortage at air traffic control during Wednesday night’s collision. 

“Well, that’s part of competence, right there,” Trump said in the Oval Office when asked if the airport was understaffed. “Competence would be you’re not gonna have a shortage.” 

The president’s comments follow a report by The Associated Press alleging that staffing levels at Ronald Reagan National Airport’s control tower were “not normal” at the time of the crash. 

The determination stems from preliminary findings by the FAA indicating that air traffic controllers were understaffed, and one person was trying to do two jobs simultaneously. 

Trump said he had not heard that allegation. 

“I don’t know. You’re telling me something,” he said, when asked a second time. 

14 Members from Figure Skating Community Among Crash Victims 

A total of 14 members of the figure skating community were among those likely or confirmed killed in the passenger plane-helicopter midair collision. 

Two teenage figure skaters, as well as their mothers, were among the passengers on the flight returning from the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas. 

Skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane have been confirmed dead, according to Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe.  

Additionally, 1994 pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova, 52, and Vadim Naumov, 55, of Russia were killed in the crash. 

The married couple finished their work at the U.S. national championships in Wichita, Kansas, before heading back to New England. 

Shishkova and Naumov won a world championship title together in 1994, and came close to medaling at the Olympics the same year. After their worldwide success they moved to the United States and began coaching young skaters. They also have a son, Maxim, who was not on the same flight. 

The Skating Club of Boston, where the pair coached, confirmed the couple was killed in the crash. 

The other skating community victims’ names have not yet been released. 

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