Helicopters often fly near planes at D.C. airport. But something went 'terribly wrong' this time
No survivors from crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia
As Wednesday night's catastrophic crash between a military helicopter and a passenger jet near Washington, D.C., officially turned from a rescue to a recovery mission, there was a common question among observers: Why were the two aircraft flying so close to each other?
The American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in mid-air with a U.S. army Black Hawk helicopter with three crew on board near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia. Officials don't believe there are any survivors.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the captain and first officer piloting the American Airlines flight had nearly eight years of experience between them.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both aircraft had been following an otherwise normal flight pattern on a clear night.
John Cox, a former airline pilot and accident investigator, told CBC News Network Thursday that there was nothing unusual about the mix of commercial and military aircraft around Reagan National Airport before the collision.
"I have done it countless times. I have seen many helicopters pass below and behind us when I was on that approach," said Cox. "So, everything was routine, until something went terribly wrong."
Military aircraft frequently conduct training flights in and around the congested and heavily restricted airspace around the U.S. capital for familiarization and continuity of government planning.
"Obviously, it is not standard to have aircraft to collide. I want to be clear on that," Duffy told reporters Thursday morning.
"Everything was standard in the leadup to the crash," he said.
"Those of us who live in the D.C. area, we see military helicopters fly up and down the river. It's a standard path that they fly. They're used to aircraft landing at [Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport]. And there's a procedure in place because this happens every day."
Heavily congested area
Military helicopters and passenger airplanes are common sights along the Potomac River in the Washington region, where the collision happened. The area is home to numerous military bases and three major airports.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is particularly busy. Over a three-year period ending in 2019, there were 88,000 helicopter flights within 48 kilometres of it, including about 33,000 military and 18,000 law enforcement flights, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a 2021 report.
Of the three major airports in the region, Reagan National is closest to the capital. Because of the short length of its runways, more than 90 per cent of flights use its main runway, making it the busiest in the U.S., with more than 800 daily takeoffs and landings, according to Reuters.
That effectively means a takeoff or landing every minute during much of the day. Reagan is the 24th-busiest U.S. airport by passengers, notes Reuters. Congress last year approved five new round trip flights to Washington, including flights to and from Seattle, San Antonio, San Diego, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
The new flights were mandated under legislation signed in May by former U.S. president Joe Biden. The law requires the Transportation Department to select flights to expand service to cities without direct service and to boost competition in markets with existing service.
Sen. Tim Kaine opposed the new flights to the "overburdened airport," writing in a letter last year that "it should go without saying that the safety of the flying public must be our primary focus."
There have been several near-miss incidents at Reagan National that have sparked alarm, including a near-collision in May 2024 between an American Airlines jet and a small airplane and one in April 2024 between Southwest and JetBlue airplanes.
"Obviously, with the Reagan airport situated on the river right across from Washington, D.C., there are some twists and turns that pilots and planes have to make as they're coming in and out of that airport, so that does require skill of the pilot to work through that," Congressman Ron Estes said at a news conference Thursday morning in Wichita, Kan., where the American Airlines flight had taken off from.
Duffy said the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration would "take appropriate action if necessary to modify flight paths" to ensure adequate separation between civilian airplanes and military helicopters.
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With files from Reuters and The Associated Press