There Was Nearly Another Aviation Accident 24 Hours Before Fatal Potomac Crash
Just 24 hours before Wednesday's catastrophic plane crash over the Potomac in which a regional American Airlines jet collided with a Black Hawk helicopter, another plane was forced to abort its planned landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for the same reason.
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported, a Republic Airways flight en route from Connecticut to D.C. was forced to approach the airport for a second time after a military helicopter blocked its flight path during its initial approach. The plane's route, circling around Reagan National and then back again, can be tracked via Flight Aware. Despite the delay, Republic Airways Flight 4514 landed safely and about 13 minutes ahead of schedule.The following evening, American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter running a training mission. All 60 people aboard the airplane were killed, as were the three soldiers in the helicopter. It ends the longest aviation safety streak in U.S. history. A commercial aircraft hasn't crashed since 2009, when a Colgan aircraft operated by Continental crashed into a residential home in New York. Fifty people lost their lives in that incident—the 49 people onboard the plane and one person inside the home.
Radio transmissions from Wednesday's tragedy indicate that air traffic control warned the helicopter it was getting too close to the regional aircraft just moments before the crash. On Thursday, it was discovered that there was a single air traffic controller performing the jobs of two people at the time of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an investigation into the incident, but said that at this point it's 'too early to tell' if human or mechanical error led to the crash.
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