At 8:47 pm on Wednesday, January 29th, during descent for landing, an American Airlines plane collided with an army helicopter. There were no survivors of this crash and a total of sixty-seven fatalities.
This crash occurred late at night, sending both aircrafts falling down into the Potomac River, right near the Reagan Washington National Airport. Both the CRJ-700 American Airlines flight, and the helicopter were seen crashing into each other and creating an explosion, followed by both aircrafts falling down. It is not yet clear what caused this collision, but it is assumed that the helicopter was flying above permitted altitude.
Conversations between air traffic control and the fallen aircraft reveal further details. “Recordings of air traffic control conversations published online suggested that a controller tried to warn the helicopter about the American Airlines plane in the seconds before the collision,” said BBC News. It can be assumed that the helicopter was unaware of it being in the path of the plane, due to how dark it was, the helicopter was not visible to the plane. The helicopter appeared to be aware of the plane, but could’ve been mistaken for a different plane or been unaware of how close the plane was.
Commercial plane accidents such as this tragedy are extremely rare in the United States, the most recent comparable crash being the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash in 2009, which took 49 lives. Although there remains a great deal left to investigate, this crash will go down in history as one of the deadliest U.S. plane crashes in recent years.
