A tragic crash of an American Airlines regional jet Wednesday night at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), which ended a long accident-free run in domestic aviation, drew shocked reactions from safety experts and the flying public.
Video footage of the crash captured by security cameras and passing cars quickly went viral but revealed little. The crash occurred just before 9 p.m. ET, when a military Black Hawk Sikorsky H-60 helicopter collided with a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet operated by American Eagle as it was about to land, according to an initial report issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. Both were plunged into the Potomac River. This was the country’s deadliest air crash since 2001, and the tragedy seemed inexplicable, given how unusual such civilian air accidents have become.
Officials have stated that there were no survivors among the 64 people aboard the American Eagle Flight 5342, which originated in Wichita, Kansas. Three pilots on the Army chopper also perished. The last time the toll was higher in a U.S. air accident was in November 2001, when an American widebody jet crashed shortly after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, killing 265 people. Since then, there has been only one other fatal commercial airline incident in the United States: the 2009 crash of a commuter jet outside Buffalo, New York, when all 49 aboard died, along with one person on the ground.
Getting answers to what went wrong will take some time. The investigation into the causes will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board. The crucial “black box” tape recordings will need to be recovered and analyzed, and air traffic control audio will be studied. At press time, divers were still pulling aircraft wreckage from the Potomac River.
Safety experts were quick to point out that Reagan National Airport, the capital’s close-in hub, is one of the nation’s most congested and delayed. Proposals to increase the number of flights at the airfield have drawn strong objections from local politicians and safety officials. The airport has one main runway and two other shorter runways often used by smaller planes. The airport is also used for military helicopters, which is another cause for concern. An air traffic control tape released after the crash suggested possible confusion on the part of the chopper pilot. “There have been questions about the setup of the airspace there,” Mary Schiavo, a former inspector for the Department of Transportation, said in an interview on CNN.
While U.S. air travel has remained remarkably safe over the past two decades, there have been numerous incidents of close calls in recent years. Staffing shortages at the FAA haven’t helped, including a lack of air traffic controllers. “For months we’ve been hearing about near misses in the air and close calls on the ground, and now we can throw drones into that mix,” Schiavo added.
As recovery efforts in the Potomac continue, some airlines have granted waivers to passengers seeking to reschedule flights to DCA, which shut down briefly after the crash and may experience disruptions through the remainder of the week. United Airlines said it would grant passengers scheduled on flights through Saturday (February 1) the option to rebook their trip for a limited period, without incurring change fees and fare differences. Delta has also issued a travel waiver for the airport.
