Reagan air traffic control tower reportedly understaffed at time of crash
Fox News' Mark Meredith provides details on the investigation into the midair collision between an Army helicopter and a passenger jet that resulted in dozens of deaths and the efforts to recover wreckage from the Potomac River.
Military helicopter flights forced at least two planes to abort landings at Reagan National Airport in the week before a deadly collision presumably killed 67 people on Wednesday, according to a report.
On Tuesday night, just one day before the collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, a different plane alerted the air traffic control tower that it had to abort its landing to avoid collision with a helicopter, the Washington Post reported.
Yet another plane arriving at DCA from Charlotte scrubbed its landing on Jan. 23, again because of a helicopter.
"They had to circle back around because there was a helicopter in the flight path," said RIchard Hart, a passenger on the Jan. 23 flight who spoke to the Washington Post. "At the time I found it odd. ... Now I find it disturbingly tragic."
Crew retrieve wreckage of American Airlines flight 5342 on the Potomac River, Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. The plane was involved in a fatal collision with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter the previous night. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)
The two close calls came within a week of Wednesday's horrifying collision, in which an inbound commercial flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River. A total of 64 people, including four crew members, were aboard passenger American Airlines Flight 5342, and three soldiers were on the Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that came from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. All are presumed dead.
The tragedy has raised concerns about frequent military training flights around Reagan National Airport, including a helicopter lane that intersects with the flight path of aircraft on the southeastern approach to Runway 33, where American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita attempted to land Wednesday, the Post reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration has placed an air traffic controller dedicated to helicopters in the National Airport tower to manage the hazards, the report said, citing a source familiar with tower operations.
However, an internal preliminary report from the FAA showed that the number of staff members working at the air control tower at DCA was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic" on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
"The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," the report said.
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Graphic shows a timeline of the plane crash near Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. (Fox News)
Despite the report saying the staffing was "not normal," a person familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that staffing in the control tower at DCA on Wednesday night was at a normal level.
The person explained that the positions get combined regularly if air controllers have to step away from the console for breaks, or if they are involved in a shift change. Controllers may also have to step away when air traffic is slow, the person explained, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
Supervisors have the ability to combine roles, which was the case on Wednesday night, though the person familiar with the matter could not say why. When asked about the air traffic and previous reports of it being heavy on Wednesday night, the source said it was moderate.
The Washington Post story cited a 2023 Government Accountability Office report to Congress that found 50 entities operated roughly 88,000 helicopter flights within 30 miles of DCA between 2017 and 2019, citing FAA data.
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Part of the wreckage is seen as rescue boats search the waters of the Potomac River after a plane on approach to Reagan National Airport crashed into the river near Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025.? (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Regulators have attempted to define safe paths for military helicopters to fly without interfering with commercial flights landing or taking off at the airport. A 2021 GAO report noted, "in airspace near Reagan National and the Potomac River, FAA further limits the maximum altitudes for helicopters where helicopter routes overlap with commercial passenger airplane operations to ensure the safety of all aircraft."
On Wednesday night, air traffic controllers had contacted the Black Hawk pilot and asked whether he could see the approaching commercial aircraft as Flight 5342 prepared to land on Runway 33.
"Do you have the CRJ in sight?" the controller asked, and the helicopter pilot confirmed he saw the passenger plane. The pilot requested "visual separation," meaning he was trying to get out of the flight's path, according to FlightRadar24 audio.
The plane and helicopter collided moments later in a fiery explosion.
A general view of Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday, January 30, 2025. An American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided with a Black Hawk helicopter while approaching the airport for landing the previous evening. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)
Jim Brauchle, a former U.S. Air Force navigator who is now an attorney representing families of victims in aviation disasters, previously told Fox News Digital that keeping a lookout for obstacles can be difficult.
"Having flown at night, having tried to look and see traffic, I think most people would say, ‘Oh, how hard is it to miss an airliner,’ right? You should be able to see that. But it's a lot more difficult than people would expect," he said.
At night in an urban environment like Washington, D.C., or northern Virginia, pilots may not be able to see other aircraft and instead may rely on seeing anti-collision or landing lights, according to Brauchle. But different ambient lights from tall buildings and towers that are lit may make it difficult to distinguish which lights belong to other aircraft.
"What I've heard from the audio is that they called out to [air traffic control]. The helicopter said that he had the aircraft in sight," the attorney said. "My guess is, and again, I'm just speculating, is they saw something that they thought was the airplane, whether it be a tower light, maybe it was another aircraft that was taking off. Whatever they thought they saw obviously wasn't the aircraft."
The cause of the collision is currently under investigation by the FAA and several other federal agencies.
The close call on Tuesday, the evening before the deadly collision, involved Republic Airways Flight 4514 from Connecticut, the Washington Post reported. The pilot told air traffic controllers it had to divert because of an emergency alert about helicopter traffic below the aircraft.
Flight tracker maps showed the plane was headed south along the Potomac River corridor towards Reagan National Airport but took a sharp turn to the west. It later landed safely at 8:16 p.m., the report said.
Fox News Digital's Audrey Conklin, Greg Wehner and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
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