Tragedy Strikes the Nation’s Capital: Midair Collision Claims Lives Near Reagan National Airport

Above photo: Jan. 29 – American Airlines #AA5342 crashes after colliding with military helicopter on approach to Reagan National Airport

Washington, DC, Jan. 29 – In the dark of night on January 29, 2025, a deadly mid-air collision occurred in the skies over the nation’s capital when an Army Blackhawk helicopter collided with a Bombardier CRJ 700 commuter jet operated as American Airlines flight 5342.

A mid-air collision is a preventable accident, but this means little to the victims and their families. We do, however, learn from these accidents and hold accountable those who are responsible for the accident, so that no others will have to experience the loss and pain that the families of the victims of American Airlines flight 5342 now know.

The American Airlines flight was flying a circle to land approach to runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew members. The Blackhawk helicopter had 3 crew members when the two aircraft collided, resulting in both aircraft plummeting into the icy waters of the Potomac River. There are no survivors. The collision occurred when the jetliner was approximately 400 feet above ground level and within moments of its intended landing on runway 33, turning what should have been a routine landing into a catastrophic event.

A preliminary assessment of available flight track data and an audio recording of federal air traffic control communications suggests that at least some of the blame for the collision will belong to the flight crew of the Army Blackhawk helicopter. It is too early to know, but fault may also be apportioned to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The air traffic controller was communicating with the military helicopter on a UHF radio frequency and communicating with the airplane on a VHF radio frequency. The pilots of each aircraft could not hear the other aircraft. The airport tower controller radioed the helicopter and asked the pilots if they had the airliner in visual sight, and they responded in the affirmative. This means that the helicopter crew were responsible for seeing and avoiding the airliner.

The helicopter was operating in an FAA approved helicopter flying zone that limited the helicopter’s altitude to a maximum of 200 feet above ground level. When the collision occurred, the helicopter was almost 400 feet above ground level, approximately 200 feet above the maximum altitude permitted in the helicopter flight zone. Video camera footage from atop the Kennedy Center shows the helicopter flying into the airliner. The helicopter pilots are reported to have been issued night vision goggles.

The National Transportation Safety Board is the arm of the federal government charged with investigating the accident and determining the cause of the mid-air collision. The NTSB will assemble a team of investigators that will include representatives from the airline, the airplane manufacturer, the engine manufacturer, the avionics manufacturer and technical advisers on radio communications, flight path analysis and downloading the information contained in each aircraft’s digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, the so-called black boxes. The Army will perform its own accident investigation. The NTSB’s investigation will take more than one year to complete before a report is issued.

What the government finds, however, will not aid the accident victims in obtaining justice from those responsible for the crash. The findings of the NTSB are inadmissible in civil court cases brought against potentially liable parties on behalf of the victims’ survivors. Attorneys for the victims’ estates and their survivors will need to retain independent aircraft accident investigators to opine on the cause of this tragic accident.

The magnitude of this tragic accident is enormous. The victims’ families have lost husbands and wives, children, brothers and sisters and parents and grandparents. Our sincere condolences to all of the families whose loved ones have been lost in this tragedy.