A passenger jet carrying 64 people crashed into Washington’s Potomac River Wednesday after colliding midair with a military helicopter, with US media reporting multiple bodies pulled from the dark, near-freezing water.
The plane was approaching Reagan National Airport at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.
American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines, which operated the Bombardier regional jet, said “there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft.”
US media, citing local sources, reported multiple bodies had been recovered, with CBS News saying at least 18, and NBC more than a dozen.
The Washington Post, citing a statement from US Figure Skating, said several athletes, coaches and officials were aboard the flight.
A US Army official said the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk carrying three soldiers, with their status currently unknown. They had been on a “training flight,” a separate military spokesperson said in a statement.
A massive search and rescue operation was in progress, with divers visible in the glare of powerful lights as they plunged into the snow-lined Potomac to scour the wreckage of both aircraft.
“We’re going to be out there as long as it takes, and we’re obviously trying to get to people as soon as possible, but we are going to recover our fellow citizens,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.
Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said at a press briefing that emergency crews, totaling about 300 people, were working in “extremely rough” conditions and gave little indication they expected to find anyone alive.
“We will re-evaluate where we are with the rescue operation in the morning, when we get a better sense of it,” Donnelly said.
“But we are still out there working, and we’re going to continue that throughout the night.”
Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw what he described as “a stream of sparks” overhead.
“Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land,” he told CNN.
“Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right… I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it,” Schulman added.
“It looked like a Roman candle.”
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National and the airport was not due to reopen until 11:00 am (1600 GMT) Thursday.
American Airlines’ chief executive issued a video statement in which he expressed “deep sorrow”, while US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas called the collision “nothing short of a nightmare.”
Questions were expected to focus on how a passenger plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and nearby traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation’s capital.
The airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan Airport and helicopters – military, civilian and carrying senior politicians or officials – buzzing about both day and night.
The same airport was the scene of a deadly crash in January 1982 when Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737, took off but quickly plummeted, hitting the 14th Street bridge and crashing through the ice into the Potomac River. Seventy-eight people died.
Investigators concluded the pilot had failed to activate sufficient de-icing procedures.
The last major fatal US air accident was in 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 from New Jersey to Buffalo, New York crashed and killed all 49 people aboard.
I know nothing about military aircraft, and next to nothing about civilian aircraft, beyond what I’ve learned from Mayday! episodes and write-ups by Admiral Cloudberg. So I’m forming some strong and unjustified opinions with no actual information
I’d guess the military helicopter didn’t have a TCAS transmitter on, and ATC made some small but vital error, like vectoring the helicopter at a set altitude through the approach path of the landing airplane
I suppose we’ll learn more later, but i suspect the civilian aircraft followed direction correctly, did everything right, and still crashed due to ATC and Helicopter pilot error
TCAS warnings are inhibited below 1000AGL. This collision occurred between 200 and 300’ AGL.
Based on the tower communication I listened to, it seemed most traffic was landing on runway 1 (A runway running south to north, oriented along a bearing of 10 degrees). The CRJ was instructed to land on runway 33 (A runway running from southeast to northwest, oriented along a bearing of 330 degrees). The winds favored runway 33, but runway 1 was longer. The initial approach path for both runways roughly followed the river from the south, with runway 1 traffic forking to the west, and runway 33 traffic forking to the east, before turning toward their respective runways.
The helicopter approached from the north, and turned toward the east, following the river.
The tower controller asked if the helicopter had the CRJ in sight. ATC subsequently instructed the helicopter pilot to maintain visual separation with, and to turn behind the CRJ. ATC knew they were getting close to eachother, but this isn’t necessarily a problem if the pilots are capable of maintaining their own separation.
I believe what happened is that the helicopter pilot saw a distant aircraft far ahead of their flight path, lined up for runway 1, and assumed that was the aircraft the controller was talking about. The CRJ was off to the left and well above the helicopter, lined up with runway 33. The pilot was maintaining separation with the distant aircraft, and did not see the nearby aircraft.
That’s a pretty good guess. I now believe this 100%. Everything i said before was bullshit
I did not know that was the collision altitude, nor did I know TCAS was inhibited below 1000’.
See, i told you i know next to nothing about this. But that’s the advantage of spouting off. The quickest way to get the right info is to say something incorrect first.
It’s called Ohm’s Law
I’m quite certain that is the Pareto Principle.
Nope that’s the Heisenberg hypothesis, the Party Principle says you never have enough popcorn. Or was it strippers and blackjack?
This was my conclusion as well after simply seeing the picture. No way that heli should have been that close to a civilian airport. There’s zero reason. That airspace looks like standard approach space for runway 43 I think it was?
The one thing I did read that stuck out to me was the heli crew was wearing night vision goggles and I’m wondering if that was somehow the issue here. Maybe they malfunctioned.
Runways are numbered by their magnetic compass orientation. Runway 33 is a runway oriented on a 330 heading (325 to 335 magnetic). Runway 1 is a runway oriented on a 10 degree heading (5 to 15 magnetic)
Based on the ADS-B track and the tower comms, the CRJ in question was on final approach to runway 33. Another aircraft in the distance was on a long final to runway 1. I think the helicopter pilot saw the distant aircraft on approach to runway 1, and didn’t see the CRJ on approach for runway 33.
Night vision goggles might narrow the pilot’s field of view, which might have kept them from seeing the aircraft high and to their left. They probably stopped looking for traffic once they saw the distant aircraft they thought that ATC was talking about.
The CRJ probably wouldn’t have been able to see the helicopter low and to their right.
I don’t see why the controller allowed the helicopter into the approach path at all.
I wonder if this will wind up being similar to the Überlingen midair collision. An overworked ATC worker making a simple mistake with no other fail-safes in place
I have spent about 45 seconds studying the Uberlingen case, so I don’t know much about it at all. From what I quickly gathered, the ATC cleared both aircraft to the same altitude and an intersecting course, and didn’t realize their mistake. That didn’t happen here.
I did not hear communication from the helicopter, but that’s not unusual: LiveATC recordings often miss traffic from aircraft in certain situations. Based on the controller’s transmissions, I have every reason to believe the controller was in 2-way communication with the helicopter.
The controller asked if the helicopter had the CRJ in sight. The next transmission asked the helicopter to maintain visual separation. This command would only be given if the helicopter had reported the CRJ in sight.
This wasn’t an oversight; the ATC’s statements indicate they were aware of the conflict and were taking steps to remediate it. That doesn’t mean their steps were right; that doesn’t mean their steps were wrong. It only means that the radio transmissions indicate the controller was aware of the situation prior to the collision.
“Heli shouldnt have been there, there’s no reason”
oh? so it shouldn’t fly in the dedicated lane it was in? lol