Deadly cocktail of passenger jets and choppers at DCA recipe for disaster: Close calls and chaos a day before collision killed 67

A CBS News report has shown that a day before the January 2025 midair collision over Washington, DC, which killed 67 people, two close calls were averted after collision alarms sounded. On January 29, a Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 crashed into each other. A day before the tragedy, two Army helicopters approached Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at a higher altitude than expected. Those in the control tower quickly triggered an alarm inside the cockpit of an American Airlines flight from Norfolk that was preparing for landing. The pilot was instructed to quickly climb to a higher altitude to avoid a collision. Nearly four hours later, another Army helicopter was involved in a similar situation when a commercial flight from Connecticut that could seat about 80 people started descending. Another alarm was sounded, and the aeroplane did not land.

Officials who worked at the air control tower at the Washington airport told 60 Minutes that such incidents were common and the warning signs had been there for years. There was constant movement of passenger jets, military, police, and hospital helicopters, and together they were a perfect recipe for disaster. They warned the Federal Aviation Administration about the issue for several years, yet no action was taken. Emily Hanoka, who was at the tower on the day the Army Black Hawk with the call sign PAT25 collided with the passenger jet, told the outlet, it was "surprising" to see "how close aircraft were".

Congress misread the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport situation

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), at least 85 near-midair collisions between helicopters and commercial aircraft were reported in the area between 2021 and 2024. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is a unique airport as it is owned by the federal government, and Congress decides how many flights can operate on a day. However, the lawmakers seem to have missed the disastrous mix and continued adding more flights despite the ongoing congestion. At least 50 flights were added since 2000, and another 10 were approved in 2024. CBS News quoted data from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which states that the airport, also known as DCA, handles 25 million passengers a year, 10 million more than its intended capacity.

Hanoka told the outlet that they came up with ways to tackle the traffic, including "squeeze play." She said, "A squeeze play is when everything is dependent on an aircraft rolling, an aircraft slowing, and you know it's going to be a very close operation." She says that no one was willing to take up a new job at the ATC at the airport after looking at how chaotic things got there. FAA figures show that nearly one-third of the controller positions in the Reagan tower remain unfilled a year after the crash.