Thu, 30 Jan 2025

American Airlines collision with Army helicopter is worst U.S. air disaster since 2001

An Army helicopter on a training flight collided with an American Airlines regional jet that was on approach into Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport.
A mid-air collision between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jetliner near Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night has ended the US's streak of commercial air travel safety. The incident is the deadliest air disaster on U.S. soil in over 20 years. According to officials, 27 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River where the plane crashed after colliding with the helicopter at an altitude of about 300 feet. There were no survivors among the 64 people on board, including 60 passengers and four crew members. The US has not experienced a fatal commercial airline crash in years, with the last one occurring in February 2009 when Continental Flight 3407 crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground. Safety experts attribute the rarity of airplane crashes to overlapping and redundant safety measures. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead an investigation into the incident, which will involve multiple parties including air traffic control recordings, training records, and cockpit voice and data recorders. President Donald Trump faces a challenge in the aftermath of the accident as he has yet to name a candidate for the permanent head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
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