From the article

One or both of the aircraft may be in the Potomac River, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
A search-and-rescue operation is underway on the river, officials said.
A source told NBC News that the plane, which was coming from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crewmembers.
The helicopter involved in the crash was an Army Black Hawk, according to a defense official and an Army official. An Army official said preliminary indications are that three people were on board.

May God Bless their souls', Trump says in statement
Rudy Chinchilla

President Donald Trump said in a statement tonight that he has been briefed on the "terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport."

"May God Bless their souls," he said in the statement posted to X by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Trump thanked first responders and said he would "provide more details as they arise."

At this point the fate of those involved is unkown.

This sucks  ! ! ! I am afraid no one survived this...  

Prayers for the families!

From the article

• Fatalities have been confirmed and rescuers have not yet pulled any survivors from the water, a law enforcement source said. The source says the plane is in pieces in the water and the helicopter is in the water nearby.

• The plane, American Airlines Flight 5342 with 60 passengers and four crew members on board, had departed from Wichita, Kansas, according to the airline. Three soldiers were on board the helicopter, which was a training flight, officials say.

• All takeoffs and landings have been halted at Reagan National Airport.

Yep, god rest their souls.  It was under the filthy maga traitor watch - so it's head filthy maga traitor cunt trump's responsibility.  That's what the filthy filthy maga traitor cunts would say if Biden or Harris was still in charge.  so FUCK YOU! little filthy maga traitor cunts.  

And YES - God rest their souls.  May they rest in Peace.

on their way back from an event in Wichita.
From The NY Times:
"Figure skaters from the United States and Russia were among the 64 people onboard the commercial jet that collided midair with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday night outside Washington.

U.S. Figure Skating, the American governing body for the sport, said that the skaters were returning from a training camp for top juvenile, intermediate, and novice skaters that follows the national figure skating championships, which were held in Wichita, Kan., over the weekend. Russian figure skaters — as well as other Russian citizens — were among those on the plane, said the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” said the statement from Alex Schauffler, the communications director for U.S. Figure Skating. As of early Thursday morning, no fatalities had been confirmed."

That's terrible news. I heard about it this morning but just now got a chance to stop and read more about it. Hate to see things like that.

Yes, just heard it has gone from a rescue to recovery mission, in this terrible event.

 
May God rest their souls

and flew in and out of DCA just last week..  

 
No idea how this could have happened.  This morning when I watched the 7:30 press conference by Sean Duffy, something struck me as rather odd. He said the helicopter knew the whereabouts of the plane but there is no proof at this time that the plane had any knowledge of the helicopter.  They were both in their normal paths.   But obviously, they weren't supposed to be there at the same time.  

 
I won't be surprised if the investigation reveals that this was a deliberate collision and not an accident.  It's one thing to miss the runway due to poor weather or hit a bridge while landing due to poor visibility, but a mid air collision.. c'mon...

It's hard to imagine a professionally trained, army helicopter pilot not heeding the on board collision warning system. And even if that failed, which is highly unlikely, he/she would have a very good line of sight with the jet from the vector the chopper was on. He/she would also be getting collision avoidance instructions from the tower as well, one would think.

Especially involving a military aircraft. The chopper was verbally informed of the presence of the plane and told to pass behind it. But he failed to do that.
As for a "normal path," I just saw a graphic of the flight path or the chopper and it looked erratic.

I think it's never a good time for conspiracy theories, and but at the same time never too early or too late to ask tough questions - especially to point out something that doesn't sit well with common sense.

In you post above you did not ask any questions, you did however, make several very irresponsible statements.

you didn't even have the decency to express any sort of condolences to those lost.

We as a collective should ask tough questions.... The question being (since you don't seem particularly smart) was this truly an accident or there is something more to it..

From the link  

“Audio from LiveATC.net, a respected source for in-flight recording, captured the final communications between the three crew members of the helicopter – call sign PAT25 – before it collided with the plane. Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.

The crash was witnessed by another plane, whose crew called in to the control tower, saying: “Tower, did you see that?”

One of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying: “Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three.” Another controller then said: “Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river … I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/29/aircraft-crash-ronald-reagan-airport-virginia

Here is link with a better graphic  

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/30/us/washington-dc-plane-crash-helicopter-maps-photos.html

The helicopter was asked if they had the jet in sight and they responded that they did. Then atc directed them to fly behind the jet.  

I’m betting the helicopter pilots mistook which aircraft was which and continued on its path believing they were ok. The jet was moving perpendicular at 140 miles an hour and from this video it looks like the helicopter simply flew into the side of the aircraft accidentally.

http://youtu.be/mxMYeZmAxvo?si=Ttwqa3qWg9p05aVj

I will be shocked if this is anything other than just a horrific accident.

I know that the general tone of this forum is a mix of strongly held opinions mixed with a healthy dose of ad hominem insults, but could we agree, at least just in this thread, to avoid the name calling out of respect for the dead?

As far as the crash goes, I do think any suggestion that this was intentional falls in the category of conspiracy theories.  What I believe we will find as the cause is a mix of system failure and human error.

We agree!

This is the second post of Nicky’s in this thread where I’ve hit the “Like” button!

Well.. I am not implying anything at this point.. I am not suggesting affirmatively that this WAS anything intentional.  I am suggesting people use common sense and don't be afraid to ask tough questions..

 
BTW, what I am truly disgusted about is Trump just blamed this on DEI hiring and Biden / Obama policies. I saw it with my eyes and heard it with my two ears.

'Trump should be investigated': President bashed for 'utterly horrible' comment on tragedy

I'll hold my normal comments on the "R's" ... but can you imagine if this happened 4 months ago - on Biden's watch - how the "R's" would be shitting their pants and blaming Biden?!?!?!  

"If this plane crash had happened four months ago, Trump would be insisting it was caused by DEI hires and blaming the Biden administration repeatedly, while the media credulously amplified the lies," said journalist Noah Berlatsky. "Making up claims like that is irresponsible and horrible, not least because it's painful for the families involved. It certainly seems like Ds could point out that Trump is gutting federal capacity, and that will lead to many more accidents like this one, though."

"I'm not blaming Trump for last night's crash but imagine if Biden fired 100 FAA officers a week prior to a plane crash," added the Krassentstein brothers, a pair of online influencers. "What would Fox News cover for the next two weeks?"

After firing 100 FAA air traffic controllers and this happening a week after - if this happened on Biden's watch - the "R's" would be screaming that Biden MURDERED these Americans.  

Out of RESPECT for the fallen - and out of grace and dignity - we WON'T be doing that on this side of the aisle.  

According to one "expert" being interviewed (sorry: I don't remember the name or what their qualifications are, but it seemed like an experienced pilot or other experienced flight professional - NOT a politician or department official or armchair pilot), current collision avoidance tech does not work well below ~1000 feet.  This collision occurred at ~300-400 feet.  
.
I didn't hear the full explanation, so this is ME asking:  
(1) increasing congestion at lower altitudes could produce constant / false warning signals, distracting crew from focusing on their approach and landing?  
(2) at lower altitudes and approach speeds, the number of "blind" "react to a signal" collision avoidance measures are limited and might create ANOTHER hazard in the process? [Think about driving on the highway and someone swerves to avoid an obstruction over there on the right and rams into some other vehicles over there on the left.]  
(3) I want to ask how maneuverable large jet aircraft are at lower approach speeds -- I do recall a "near miss" during a daytime, visual landing (probably at Logan / Boston but I don't remember if it was local news or national news): the jet was coming in and slowing down to land on the assigned runway but there was another aircraft taxiing across the runway (runways DO intersect and cross each other) up ahead. The pilot quickly "hit the gas" and flew back UP to avoid a possible collision. I don't recall if it was a "near miss" of 100 feet or less or a "What the fuck did you do that for? The other plane would have been clear by 1000 feet by the time you reached the intersection!!" As I recall, regardless of the 100 foot vs 1000 foot clearance, the taxiing pilot was found to be at fault and should not have been crossing the runway during that time anyway.
.
NTSB investigations can be very thorough (error analysis, fault analysis, failure analysis, ... nitpick analysis) and take a long time.  In  his press conference, Trump basically assigned blame to "DEI," BEFORE any kind of analysis at all. Trump called for hiring only the best and brightest geniuses on the same day that his HHS nominee RF Kennedy is being interviewed by the Senate.  To me, Kennedy is not qualified to head HHS but Trump sheep senators will approve Kennedy and, thus, politically designate him to be the "best, brightest genius" for the job.  Put on your seat belts.

A week after firing 100 FAA air traffic controllers - if this happened on Biden's watch - the "R's" would be screaming that Biden MURDERED these Americans.  

Out of RESPECT for the fallen - and out of grace and dignity - we WON'T be doing that on this side of the aisle.  

and a pilot's license myself, here is my theory . . . .  

 
We know the helicopter was a training flight, so the Pilot being trained may have been working under a "hood" under IFR conditions.  (The hood comes down over your face at an angle and allows you to see the instruments in front of you, but you cannot see out the windshield of side windows of the cockpit.)   When the tower asked the helicopter pilot if he could "see" the CJ7, and the pilot said, "Yes," he could have been referring to "seeing" the plane on the radar, so then the possibilities include that as a "trainee" he misjudged the distance from himself to the radar "blip", or that he mistook a different radar blip as the plane the tower was referring to.  Unlike the radar received by the ATC's in the tower, radar on smaller individual aircraft does not display aircraft type or tail number of flight number automatically, so the trainee pilot may have been guessing which aircraft he was instructed to look out for.  With this is what happened, then the PIC/Instructor was negligent in not confirming visually which aircraft they were warned about, but since there were three on the helicopter, he may have been engaged with the third person and not paying attention to what the trainee was doing.  More negligence on the part of the instructor.  

Truly disrespectful and disgusting.

What 100 FAA Air Traffic Controllers were just fired?

Per usual, lost bitch the dumb filthy maga traitor cunt who betrayed his oath and his country is completely uninformed:  

 
Notably, when the Trump administration came in on 20 January, it started swiftly firing federal employees, meaning the Federal Aviation Administration’s leadership is now dotted with vacancies. There is no Senate-confirmed administrator leading the agency.

 
Michael Whitaker, the administrator under Biden, left the agency after Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump supporter, demanded he resign, the Daily Beast reported. Trump nominated Chris Rocheleau to lead the agency in the aftermath of the crash.

 
Also of note: there has been a years-long shortage of air traffic controllers, which the FAA has been working to address. Alongside the shortage is an increase in near misses.

 
The blanket hiring freeze said that “no federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created”, but exempted public safety positions, which could include air traffic control.

 
Democratic lawmakers believe the hiring freeze applies to air traffic controllers. The ranking member of the House committee on transportation and infrastructure, Rick Larsen, issued a statement saying the freeze would contradict the 2024 FAA reauthorization bill that requires the agency to hire the maximum number of controllers.

 
“Hiring air traffic controllers is the No 1 safety issue according to the entire aviation industry,” Larsen said. “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.”

 
Trump forced out the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administrator, David Pekoske, as well, and gutted an aviation security advisory committee. A prior division leader at the TSA warned that the effort to end remote work would lead to attrition and a loss of knowledge at the agency.

 
Conservatives often blame the air traffic controller shortage on diversity measures, a line of attack so frequent that one of Trump’s executive orders specifically focused on ending the FAA’s diversity programs, part of a government-wide push against these programs in the new administration.

 
A factsheet about the order alleged that the FAA under Biden had “specifically recruited and hired individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis over other individuals who sought to work for the FAA”.

 
Aviation groups have pushed back against the assertion that diversity programs make the air less safe.

 
Tennessee Garvey, a pilot and the chair of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, told NBC News that DEI had been inappropriately “weaponized” and blamed for safety issues without any proof.

 
“There’s never been any proof that DEI causes any safety issues, because it doesn’t,” he said.

Jan. 30, 12:15 p.m. ESTFormer Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Trump's claim the FAA was made unsafe by DEI hiring practices "despicable," and criticized him for what he called his move to “fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe” (within a day of taking office, Trump had fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration and eliminated all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee).

Jan. 30, 10:30 a.m. ESTDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Army helicopter involved in the crash was was flying from Fort Belvoir, Va., was being flown by “a fairly experienced crew” and was conducting “a required annual night evaluation” flight.

"FAIRLY EXPERIENCED CREW"

So, wrong again cuck-douche-liar. Per usual.  

of course there is ALWAYS the distinct possibility that hegseth is lying his fucking ass off - as MOST of the filthy maga traitor cunts do ...  but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here...

http://www.snopes.com/news/2024/01/15/faa-dei-initiatives/
from Jan 15, 2025 ... two weeks BEFORE the DC incident:  
"On Jan. 14, 2024, Fox News and the New York Post, among others, ran a story that not-so-subtly tried to link a Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines incident — in which a Boeing 737 Max 9 lost a plug door mid-flight — to an allegedly new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives ..."
.
And post-DC incident:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-evidence-appears-blame-faa-diversity-initiatives-factor/story?id=118272015
Trump, without citing evidence, attacks FAA diversity initiatives during plane crash briefing, prompts fierce backlash.
Jan 30, 2025
.
"... But when a reporter pressed Trump, saying that similar language on DEI policies existed on the FAA's website under Trump's entire first term, Trump shot back, "I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy and then Biden came in and he changed it. [ACCORDING TO SNOPES AND OTHERS, THIS IS A BLATANT TRUMP LIE, PROVABLE BY WEBSITE HISTORY.] ..."
.
"Trump said Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary in the Biden administration, "just got a good line of bulls---" and said Buttigieg had "run [the Department of Transportation] right into the ground with his diversity." ..."
.
"... Buttigieg responded in a statement on X. "We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. ..." [On Day 1, (Dictator for One Day) TRUMP SUSPENDED HIRING INTO ALL VACANT FEDERAL POSITIONS. Trump now claims that it did not include ATCs. Others claim that it did include vacant ATC positions. It should be easy to determine how many ATCs were hired between 20-Jan and 29-Jan.]

No investigation needed at all. Just blame DEI. Trump is just a disgrace to this country. His first week, he goes soft on people who assault and injure the police. In his second week he politicizes a calamity in last nights crash. I cant wait until next week. smh.

And this week a mid air collision happened. 60 some people died, but that’s a small price to pay so that black lesbian midgets can become air traffic controllers.

END OF MESSAGE

and blames DEI when there is NO EVIDENCE of it being a factor.  According to The Times it may have been under-staffing:
"The internal report reviewed by The New York Times said the controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity on Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways — jobs typically assigned to two different controllers."
So much for "black lesbian midgets."
Wanker has descended into self-parody. And racism. Oh, right, Wanker's been a racist for a VERY long time.
Was Wanker passed over for promotion in favor of a black lesbian midget?
That would explain a lot.

Most all crashes involving commercial aircraft or military aircraft have "fairly experienced crews."  Would you want to be a passenger in an aircraft where the crew is only evaluated "annually?"  Do you see the desperation of declaring I'm wrong when the investigation has just started.  You are a simpleton and should stay in your lane on things you CLEARLY don't know about.  Is Hegseth telling all he knows?  Probably not, but all will be revealed over time.  

 
Another possibility is that the military aircraft did not have TCAS. It is required on all commercial airplanes, but some military aircraft have it and some don't.  However, it's well known in the industry that when flying around airports heavily populated with other aircraft, which would cause the TCAS to emit an almost continuous, monotonous screeching, many pilots will lower the volume way down or TURN THEM OFF COMPLETELY, because they can be a distraction when trying to land.  

 
Furthermore, FAA rules require the more maneuverable aircraft, in this case, the helicopter, to give way in crowded airspace, and the CJ-7 was on short-final, so it clearly had the right-of-way.  Taking all of this into consideration, it's MY OPINION that this collision was avoidable and we are going to find that one or both pilots contributed to this tragedy by actions they undertook that are in contravention of FAA rules and procedures.

We’ll set aside that leftists don’t even know what “evidence” means. Air traffic controllers have been doing just fine with a damn near crash free record for years since 9/11. Biden comes along and puts retarded trans lesbians in charge of air traffic controlling and then a crash happens.

Many sources, including military newspaper sources, say that the helicopter was on a training mission:  
http://www.foxnews.com/us/3-soldiers-black-hawk-helicopter-involved-dc-airliner-crash
"... The helicopter had flown out of Davidson Air Base at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and crashed while performing a training mission, Army officials said. ..."
.
http://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-blackhawk-helicopter-plane-collision/
"... “While performing a training mission a United States Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion, Davison Army Airfield, Fort Belvoir, Va., collided in midair with an American Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet Flight 5342 last night at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport,” Ron McLendon, a spokesman for Joint Task Force – National Capital Region, said on Thursday. “The FAA, NTSB and the United States Army will investigate. ..."
.
I hope that someone will explain what the "training mission" was. It could be periodic skills REFRESHER training for a fairly or even highly experienced crew, keeping them in practice for a "real" situation. It could be training on something totally new for a trainee joining the more experienced crew. CDL mentioned instrument-only (no visual) flying training as a possibility, NOT a certainty.  
.
CDL mentioned TCAS - Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems. I had read about that earlier (see my post above). Here's an article:  
http://www.newsweek.com/dc-plane-crash-tcas-warning-black-hawk-helicopter-2023717
Former Pilot Analyzes DC Plane Crash: Did TCAS Fail? Jan 30, 2025
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"... Retired American Airlines pilot Doug Rice told NBC News that TCAS is not fully effective below 700 feet—the estimated altitude of the collision. As planes approach landing, TCAS alerts can be suppressed to reduce unnecessary distractions, meaning the system may not have provided a timely warning that the Black Hawk was approaching. However, Bubb noted that some witnesses reported seeing the airplane in a steep bank turn before the helicopter struck it, followed by a trail of sparks.  "That tells me the helicopter was on the TCAS of the passenger plane, and the pilot tried to avoid it, but it was too late," Bubb told Newsweek. ..."'
.
Bubb also suggested that there might have been a medical incident that could lead to an incident like this.

Please note Wanker provides ZERO evidence to support his claim of "retarded trans lesbians."
Because there isn't any.

Not true at all, the biggest racist this board has ever seen, snowqueen himself chimed in shortly after this post started. And the 2nd biggest racist posting here is the TER troll bigP who's probably not awake yet as he prepares for his night shift job.  

So, see Robert. You were all wrong.

As they did climate change and everything else under their watch.Lets see who he is gonna blame this on..China ?  Because, although he is charge and it happened under his watch he will put it on someone else..anyone else.

Here is Softy’s quote:

 
“Also of note: there has been a years-long shortage of air traffic controllers, which the FAA has been working to address.”

 
Why has there been a shortage of air traffic controllers for years? Could it be that the Biden administration refused to hire white people to do the job? You know, like qualified white males with military experience? And instead they reserved those jobs for retard black lesbians and gay Mexican midgets?

END OF MESSAGE

Do you hate white people just because of the color of their skin?