The deadly midair crash over D.C. area in charts and maps
Investigators are searching for answers after a midair collision near Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening killed 67 people.
The crash took place at around 8:48 p.m. near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, just south of the city, when a small passenger plane making its final approach to the airport collided with an Army helicopter.The graphics below illustrate what we know about the crash so far. They will be updated as more information is made available.
The collision involved American Eagle Flight 5342, a small plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, and an Army Black Hawk helicopter with three people on board.
The helicopter was performing an 'annual proficiency training flight' at the time of the crash, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday.
The Army tracks its aviation branch mishaps, and according to its data there were more serious mishaps — those involving deaths, disability or multimillion dollars of damage — last year than there were in the previous decade.
Data from the aircraft tracking site ADS-B Exchange shows the plane descending at the time of the crash, with its altitude dropping from 4,000 feet to around 300 feet. The helicopter's last broadcast altitude shows it was flying near 200 feet.
There were no survivors, President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday, making it the first fatal commercial aircraft in the United States since 2009 and the second aviation accident with 10 or more victims this decade.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
American Press
2 hours ago
- American Press
Under pressure: More than 4,000 Iowa National Guard soldiers train at Fort Polk
From junior enlisted soldiers to senior Iowa Army National Guard leaders, all participants endured mental, physical and emotional exhaustion during their training at Fort Polk. (Special to the American Press) By Sgt. Ryan Reed | Special to the News Leader FORT POLK — More than 4,000 soldiers from the Iowa Army National Guard trained throughout June at Fort Polk, undergoing one of the Army's most demanding combat training events in preparation for an upcoming overseas deployment. Known since the Vietnam War era as 'Tigerland,' Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center have become synonymous with forging combat-ready soldiers through intense, realistic training. For Iowa's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry division, this rotation marks a pivotal moment: their first full brigade deployment since 2010. At the Joint Readiness Training Center, or JRTC, soldiers are evaluated under pressure. Their minds are stressed, their physical limits are tested and their endurance is pushed to the edge. From junior enlisted soldiers to senior Iowa Army National Guard leaders, all participants endure mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. The JRTC is one of four Army combat training centers. The others are the Joint Multinational Readiness Cente in Hohenfels, Germany; the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; and the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The JRTC, however, is known for being the most grueling. The simulated combat environment, complete with force-on-force scenarios and constant stressors, provides soldiers with some of the most realistic training they will encounter in their careers. 'There are a lot of methods that we use to test soldiers while they're in the training area. One is simply the stress and pressure of combat,' said Brig. Gen. Derek Adams, the senior trainer for rotation 25-08. 'We try to simulate that as best we can.' As the senior trainer, Adams works closely with observer-coach/trainers and the JRTC leadership to design, execute and evaluate the training rotation. He coordinates with the operations group, which oversees the exercise, monitors unit performance across all war-fighting functions and delivers objective feedback through after-action reviews to improve readiness at every level. 'JRTC emphasizes DOD's priorities of lethality, war fighting and readiness by training the entire brigade combat team, from the individual Soldiers to the brigade combat team level,' Adams said. 'It's a large, complex organization, and this training reflects that.' This type of training marks a broader shift in Army doctrine. The Army is transitioning from the counterinsurgency operations of the past two decades to large-scale combat operations, or LSCO. Large-scale combat operations prepare soldiers for potential conflicts with near-peer adversaries by emphasizing large-scale maneuvers, complex logistics and sustained combat power. 'LSCO changes sustainment operations sheerly in the magnitude of what occurs,' said Col. Tony Smithhart, commander of the 734th Regional Support Group. 'You're talking about large numbers of soldiers, large numbers of equipment.' The Regional Support Group is structured to provide logistical support to up to 20,000 soldiers in a deployed environment. As the Regional Support Command for the JRTC, the RSG was tasked with coordinating all sustainment efforts. This included feeding more than 5,800 soldiers, managing medical treatment and staging and preparing more than 2,500 pieces of equipment for operation. Planning for the JRTC began more than a year before the first boots hit the ground. 'I made my first trip to Fort Polk about 18 months ago to determine the actual area we'd operate in,' Smithhart said. 'Since then, my team at the 734th Regional Support Group has returned about six times to coordinate with Fort Polk staff, validate our node concepts and rehearse operations to support reception, staging, onward integration and base camp management.' The JRTC has earned its reputation. The environment is humid and rainy, the terrain is unforgiving and the scenarios evolve constantly. All of these factors come together to form a stressful and taxing exercise, but one that will toughen Soldiers. 'The scale of this operation is critical to the development of our soldiers,' Smithhart said. 'It's been called a generational training opportunity, and I believe that's accurate.'
Business Insider
9 hours ago
- Business Insider
I moved my son out of New York to protect him when he was young — 14 years later, he was shot and killed there
If there's one thing I have learned since losing my son Alex, it's that there are no perfect parents. We make the best, most loving decisions we can with what we know in the moment. Sometimes it works. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, life seems determined to break our hearts. I moved my family out of NY to protect my son I had Alex when I was 31 years old. He was a beautiful boy with copper-blonde hair and deep, sparkling green eyes. A wisp as a child, Alex searched for fairies in the yard and loved to read books in my lap, his tiny hand warm in mine. He lived for soccer, Star Wars, and digging in dirt. Looking back, I think I sensed his fragility and that he wouldn't be here for long. I was a journalist in Albany, New York, at the height of my career, balancing an investigative, law, and court beat with marriage and two young kids. Alex's sister Tori came along when he was 5. Alex did well until late middle school, when bullies began harassing him at school and on the bus, pushing him, refusing him a bus seat, and throwing things at him. We took the proper steps: calling the kids' parents, taking the school to task to put a stop to it, and going back again and again. However, the bullying continued. The bus would calm down. Then a gym class ramped up. It was relentless. Until the day Alex told us he couldn't take any more, and he wished he could die. I could have simply moved him to a different school and stayed in New York, but I was worn down from trying to stop the bullying and had had enough. I wanted to move back home to Massachusetts to be with my dying mother, and since that option also offered a reprieve for Alex, that's what we did. We sold our house, said our goodbyes, and began a fresh start in Massachusetts. Leaving everything we knew — the home we'd built, our friends, and careers — was painful, but worth it. Little did I know, I'd lose Alex 14 years later, near the same town I'd tried to protect him from. Alex had a hard life Years passed after our move to Massachusetts. We made new friends, rediscovered old ones, and got good jobs. Alex finished high school, enlisted in the Army, and was assigned to Fort Drum in Watertown, NY, just hours from our old place. He served two tours in Afghanistan, was decorated, and made us so proud. It had a price, though. He received massive injuries from raids, developed Sarcoidosis of the lungs from the burn pits (areas where waste is burned at military bases), and medically retired on full disability at 26. He came home damaged, a different person, and inadequately prepared for civilian life. We loved having Alex home, but the transition was hard. He held a few jobs over the next few years and moved out on his own. However, his lung disease progressed rapidly, and soon, work was impossible. His depression deepened. By this time, I was divorced, and he had moved in with Tori and me so we could help him. Alex was shot and killed in upstate New York Shortly before his death in 2021, Alex, then 29, was accepted into a two-week veterans' inpatient program at a Boston hospital to explore health solutions. Finally, we'd get some answers. However, hope was short-lived. The stay was canceled at the last minute due to missing paperwork that Veterans Affairs had not submitted on his behalf. Alex was crushed after waiting so long for assistance. He just could not catch a break. So, he decided to go visit his dad and some friends near our old upstate NY neighborhood for the weekend. He was killed the next day in a mass shooting outside an Albany bar. The irony was devastating. I moved our family away from a threat to Alex's life in NY, only to lose him there anyway. I will never forget the 2 a.m. call from the Albany Police that took part of me, too. Do I regret our move? I regret being forced to leave the lives we loved because of merciless bullying and the suffering it caused. I regret being robbed of the innocence and happiness we had before this complete and devastating circle of sadness. However, I am also grateful that by moving from the threat, we had another 14 years together as a family, never knowing that our son would leave as he did. Gaining more time with this amazing human in our lives, in either place, was a precious gift I could never regret.
The Hill
2 days ago
- The Hill
Flight diverted to Las Vegas over smoking engine
An American Airlines flight was diverted to Las Vegas due to a smoking engine on Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement obtained by The Hill's sister network NewsNation that an American Airlines flight 'returned safely' to Harry Reid International Airport early Wednesday morning Pacific time after 'an engine issue' was reported. The flight, bound for Charlotte, N.C., according to a statement from the airport also obtained by NewsNation, experienced 'smoke coming from the left engine and the aircraft returned.' Out of the 165 passengers, there were no reports of injuries, according to the airport. The incident occurred shortly after takeoff, American Airlines told The Hill. 'The aircraft taxied to the gate under its own power and customers deplaned normally,' the airline added. 'We appreciate the professionalism of our crew and thank our team who are working to get our customers to their destinations as quickly as possible.' Earlier this year, a deadly collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport rattled the country. The FAA earlier this month also announced it would limit the number of arrivals and departures through the end of the year at Newark Liberty International Airport amid outages and staffing shortages at the airport. 'The confirmed reduced rates will maintain safety while alleviating excessive flight delays at the airport due to staffing and equipment challenges,' the agency said in a previous order. Updated at 5:01 p.m. EDT
