American Eagle and U.S. Army Black Hawk Potomac River Mid-Air Collision Update

American Eagle Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ700 series airliner operating a scheduled domestic passenger flight, collided midair with a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter while on final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington, D.C. Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River, resulting in the loss of all 67 people on board.

Flight 5342, operated by PSA Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group, carried 60 passengers and four crew members. The Black Hawk helicopter, on a training flight from Davison Army Airfield in Fairfax County, Virginia, had a crew of three military personnel.

At approximately 8:47 p.m. EST, less than 30 seconds before impact, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter crew if they had the CRJ in sight while multiple CRJ aircraft were operating near DCA. The crew confirmed visual contact with an aircraft and requested “visual separation” from the airliner, meaning they would maintain separation based on their own visual judgment. The controller approved this request and moments later instructed the helicopter to pass behind Flight 5342.

The aircraft collided at an altitude of less than 300 feet (91 m), with the CRJ traveling at approximately 128 miles per hour (206 km/h; 111 kn) upon impact. The collision caused the helicopter to explode and crash into the Potomac River. Flight 5342’s radio transponder ceased transmitting about 2,400 feet (730 m) short of Runway 33, where it was intended to land. Flightradar24 ADS-B data indicated the transponder provided incorrect readings for an additional minute after the crash.

The incident was captured on a webcam at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with another video showing a brief trail of fire. Witnesses described seeing the airliner “split in half” upon impact, while the helicopter crashed upside down near the wreckage of the plane. A pilot in an uninvolved aircraft confirmed the crash to air traffic control and reported seeing flares from the opposite side of the Potomac as his flight was on short final approach.

The CRJ700’s traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), which might have helped prevent the collision at higher altitudes, does not issue advisories to aircraft on approach below 1,000 feet (300 m). This limitation is designed to prevent directing an aircraft into terrain or another low-flying aircraft.

This accident was the deadliest US aviation accident since American Airlines Flight 587 on November 12, 2001, the first fatal accident involving the CRJ700 series since its introduction in 2001, and the first major commercial plane crash involving multiple fatalities in the United States since Colgan Air Flight 3407 on February 12, 2009. Also, it was the first crash in the Potomac River since Air Florida Flight 90 collided with a bridge before crashing into the river on January 13, 1982.

Authorities have launched a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collision.