Commercial Airliner and Black Hawk Helicopter Collide Over Potomac River

Last night, a commercial airliner carrying 64 passengers collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C. This morning, authorities reported that they had pulled 27 bodies from the crash site, and they do not expect to find any survivors.

Crash Details

The plane was a 20-year-old Bombardier CRJ700 on its way from Wichita, Kansas, and approaching its runway at the airport. The Black Hawk was flying a training mission out of nearby Fort Belvoir. The night was clear, and both FAA and Army officials have stated that there were no indications of malfunctions or miscommunications.

The jet was flying north towards its runway, while the helicopter was coming south from the fort. They collided with each other just after 9 p.m. on Wednesday. The crash was captured on video and uploaded to social media after it occurred, and the debris field spread across the water of the Potomac. Recovery efforts are ongoing.

Investigation and Response

The hunt for an explanation or someone to blame has begun. In a post on Truth Social last night after midnight, President Donald Trump suggested that air traffic controllers were at fault.

"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport," Trump said on Truth Social. "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. 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!!!"

Leadership Vacuum at FAA

The tragedy comes less than a month after the start of his presidency and just days after the Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the Secretary of Defense. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently leaderless, with Michael Whitaker assuming the post in 2023 and announcing his intention to resign back in December following Trump’s victory.

Whitaker was a vocal critic of SpaceX and had chastised Elon Musk’s space program for skirting safety regulations. Musk told him to resign from the FAA in a post on X. Whitaker did just that, leaving his post on January 20.

Uncertainty at FAA

At the moment, it is unclear who is running the FAA. The administrator is a post that requires Senate confirmation, but Trump has not named a successor. Former FAA official Chris Rocheleau returned to the agency recently, and sources inside D.C. have told some news outlets that he is the de-facto leader.

The FAA is officially leaderless after the first major mid-air collision in the U.S. in 16 years. Adding to the confusion is the federal hiring freeze, which Trump enacted by dictate and has been unevenly applied and widely misunderstood.

Impact on Air Traffic Control

On January 22, a week before the crash, ranking members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure called out the hiring freeze in a joint statement. "Hiring air traffic controllers is the number one safety issue according to the entire aviation industry. Instead of working to improve aviation safety and lower costs for hardworking American families, the Administration is choosing to spread bogus DEI claims to justify this decision," Rick Larsen (D-WA) said in the statement.

Redditors React

On /r/ATC, a subreddit dedicated to air traffic controllers, members vented their confusion and asked what was going on with jobs. "Anybody else notice that all ATC job postings on usajobs have been removed besides DOD positions? I’ve been told that all vacancy announcements that closed prior to today will still go through the selection process. Anyone else heard anything?" One Redditor said three days ago.

History of FAA

The FAA was formed in 1958, in part, because a series of mid-air collisions convinced Washington and the public that a federal agency was needed to regulate the skies.