Video appears to show passenger jet crash over Potomac River
Earthcam video appears to show the moment of a passenger jet plane crash over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport.
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Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
Trump blames military helicopter crew for Washington DC plane crash
The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet was to blame for the crash near Washington DC, Donald Trump has said. Washington's Ronald Reagan airport banned helicopters from flying parts of two routes within its radius after the crash and the US president said the military aircraft was 'flying too high' at the time of the collision. The Black Hawk helicopter was conducting a training flight for a female pilot who has not yet been identified. She was being overseen by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, who had more than 1,000 hours of flying experience and would have been expected to take over the controls in an emergency. The crew chief of the Black Hawk was identified as Ryan O'Hara, a father of one, who would have sat in the back of the aircraft as it flew through the congested airspace above Washington DC. All three soldiers were killed in the crash above Ronald Reagan National Airport, as well as the 64 passengers and crew on American Airlines flight 5342. Credit: Earthcam Jonathan Koziol, the chief of staff of the army's aviation directorate, dismissed questions on the ability of female pilots in remarks to reporters on Thursday. 'As for women in the military, flying a helicopter is like driving a car,' he said. 'You just got to learn how to do it and anyone can do it with the proper training. 'Both pilots had flown this specific route before at night – this wasn't something new to either one of them. These are our top pilots doing this national capital region,' he added. In a post on his own social media platform, Trump Social, Mr Trump wrote: 'The Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. 'That's not really too complicated to understand, is it???' The crew had night vision goggles at the time of the flight, Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, said. He added that the army was investigating whether there was an 'elevation issue' after it was reported the helicopter had been flying outside the normal Black Hawk route. On Friday it emerged an air traffic controller was allowed to leave their post early on the night of the crash. At the time of the collision, there was one controller managing traffic for both helicopters and planes, a job normally handled by two people from 10am until 9.30pm, according to The New York Times. Bradley Bowman, a former Black Hawk pilot who had flown the same path as the doomed craft, told CBS News that it was crucial for pilots to keep the helicopter below 200ft. 'You literally have aircraft coming in and out, and you have to stay at that altitude ... to make sure there isn't a collision. For some reason that failed last night.' Mr Trump has blamed diversity hiring for the crash, without providing evidence, and accused the Black Hawk of taking an 'unbelievably bad' route ahead of the crash. The Black Hawk crew were part of Bravo Company of the 12 Aviation Battalion based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Rescuers have pulled around 40 bodies out of the freezing waters of the Potomac River, with the search continuing into Friday morning. The Marine Corps junior reserve officers' training corp at Parkview High in Gwinnett County posted a condolence message on Facebook confirming O'Hara was one of its former students. 'It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of one of our own. Class of 2014, former cadet Ryan O'Hara was the crew chief on the Black Hawk involved in last night's crash in DC.' The post, which has since been deleted, added that O'Hara was 'fondly remembered as a guy who would fix things around the ROTC gym as well as a vital member of the rifle team'. Gary, O'Hara's father, was watching television when news of the crash broke. 'I just had a gut feeling when I saw the story breaking,' he told The Washington Post. Two army officials delivered the news that his son was among the casualties on Thursday morning. 'As a parent, how do you take the news like this and not be totally broken?' asked Mr O'Hara. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Yahoo
A pilot's view on why helicopter did not avoid passenger jet in Washington crash
In order to enable safe flight, airspace is split into categories ranging from very tightly controlled areas around airports to other zones – mostly rural – where rules are much more relaxed. The most stringently controlled zones are Class A airspace, such as the area around the Ronald Reagan airport in Washington. Pilots must obtain clearance from Air Traffic Control (ATC) to enter and, except in an emergency situation, must follow ATC instructions to the letter, such as on heading, height or clearance to land. If reconstructions of the situation in Washington last night and ATC instructions are correct, a passenger aircraft seems to have been given clearance to line up and land on runway 33. (The runway is laid out on heading 330 degrees – with the opposite direction being 150 degrees.) Donald Trump took to his Truth Social network overnight and said: 'The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. 'The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a clear night, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or turn.' In ordinary flight outside controlled airspace, when two aircraft are approaching each other, the aircraft on the right-hand side has right of way. This is why one wing has a red light and the other green: approaching aircraft have a visual cue to take avoiding action – or not, depending on which colour of light they see. Once given clearance to land by ATC, however, an aircraft does not have to alter course even if, as seems to be the case in this incident, another aircraft (the military Blackhawk helicopter) is closing in on its right-hand side. The helicopter should therefore have given way to the passenger jet. The crew of the Blackhawk helicopter should also have sought permission from ATC to 'cross the active', meaning to fly over the active runway and an imaginary line extended from that runway out to the ATC zone limits. This is another safety mechanism designed to keep aircraft landing, and other airspace users clear of each other. In the ATC transcripts released so far, no such permission seems to have been given. Credit: Earthcam LiveATC, a respected public source for ATC radio broadcasts, captured the final transmission from controllers to the US Army helicopter, which was using the callsign PAT25. 'PAT25, do you have a CRJ [the airliner] in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,' an air traffic controller said at 8:47pm on Wednesday, local time. Such 'pass-behind' manoeuvres are routinely carried out every day all over the world, although visual clearances tend to be given in daylight rather than at night. Seconds after that ATC transmission, the collision occurred, with background noises on the recording suggesting other personnel in the control tower saw the fireball as it happened. Credit: X/@rawsalerts The transmission suggests that the helicopter's pilots had been instructed to visually identify the CRJ airliner and ensure they would fly behind it while crossing the approach track to runway 33. Normally a pilot would be expected to acknowledge the ATC instruction by saying 'traffic in sight' or 'traffic not in sight'. That reply never came. Dominic Nicholls served for 23 years in the British Army with operational deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. Originally a cavalry officer in The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards he later transferred to the Army Air Corps where he flew Gazelle helicopters. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Yahoo
Trump asks why army helicopter didn't avoid passenger jet as military faces uncomfortable questions
Donald Trump has raised questions over why a military helicopter did not avoid a passenger plane as a probe was opened into the armed force's involvement in a deadly collision between the two aircraft. The commercial jet carrying 64 passengers plunged into the Potomac River near Washington DC's Reagan National Airport after colliding mid-air with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter. The US president speculated that the military aircraft could have been to blame for the incident, even as the authorities were still looking into the cause of the tragic crash. 'The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time,' Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. 'It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. 'This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!' Credit: Earthcam Mr Trump had earlier said that he had been 'fully briefed' on the incident. Pete Hegseth, his controversial defence secretary, wrote on social media that the army and Pentagon would investigate the crash. He shared an email from Heather Chairez, a military spokeswoman, which said the helicopter had been on a 'training flight' out of Davison Army Airfield, less than 20 miles south of Reagan National Airport. The crash is the first disaster faced by Mr Trump and his new administration weeks after entering office in the White House for the second time. Rescue workers have been battling murky, cold and windy conditions while searching for survivors in the Potomac River. There are believed to be 'no survivors' from the American Airlines plane and military helicopter, the local fire chief said. Mr Trump's comments raise an uncomfortable question over the military's potential involvement in the crash. Both in and out of office, the US president has accused an element of the 'deep state', including within the military, of attempting to undermine him politically. Before his election, he blamed the Secret Service for failing to stop an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania. Mr Trump is seen as rooting out officials in on officials from the intelligence agencies to the military and law enforcement to crack down on his perceived opponents. Research published recently appears to show an increasing link between extremism cases in the US and the country's military. A report from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism published in December found that from 1990 to 2023, 730 individuals with US military backgrounds had committed criminal acts that were motivated by their political, economic, social or religious goals, Axios reported. The data shows that there has been an increase in incidents. Between 1990-2010, an average of 7.1 people per year with US military backgrounds committed extremist crimes. Since 2011, that number has grown to 44.6 per year. Some 84 per cent were no longer serving in the military when they committed extremist crimes, the report said. Most recently, a man who died inside of a Tesla Cyber truck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan 1 was a serving member of the US Army. The FBI said the suspect in a deadly vehicle attack, which killed at least 10 people, in New Orleans on New Year's Day was also a veteran. Mr Hegseth during his confirmation hearing said the accusations of extremism within the military was 'fake', adding the Pentagon had overreacted by 'peddling the lie of racism in the military'. Audio recordings of air traffic control communications captured the moment the helicopter pilots were asked if the commercial jet, operated by American Airlines, was in sight. An air traffic controller asked: 'PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?' 'PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ,' the controller added. In further audio captured before the crash, the helicopter pilot can be heard saying: 'PAT 2-5 has aircraft in sight, request visual separation.' Near-misses at Reagan National Airport are not uncommon in what experts describe as a complicated airspace situation. There were at least eight near-midair collisions around the airport in 2024, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 'You can't get into the DCA airspace unless you are totally under air traffic control,' Mary Schiavo, a US Transportation Department official, told CNN. 'Anybody operating in that had to coordinate with air traffic control. And we know that happened because air traffic control talked to the helicopter.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
