Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that “there was some sort of elevation issue” with the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided in mid-air with a passenger airliner Wednesday night over the Potomac River that is now being investigated. He also confirmed at a press conference that the Black Hawk was in the midst of a so-called “continuity of government” training mission. Continuity of government missions would generally involve the rapid movement of government leaders in the event of an emergency that threatens the functioning of government. Neither Hegseth nor President Donald Trump provided further details on what that training mission entailed.
The collision killed the three soldiers aboard the UH-60 helicopter, as well as 64 aboard the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which was on its final approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport at the time. Investigations into the fatal accident are being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Pentagon and the U.S. Army.
Shortly before 9 p.m. last night, the airliner, inbound from Wichita, Kansas, collided in midair with the Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Runway 33, the FAA stated. The PSA flight was operating as Flight 5342 for American Airlines. You can catch up with what happened in our initial story here.
The Black Hawk was assigned to Bravo Company of the 12th Aviation Battalion out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Hegseth said, adding in a video posted to X Thursday that the helicopter was manned by a “fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation.” The crew did have night vision goggles, he added.
It is unclear at the moment whether the flight crew was wearing those goggles at the time. While illuminating the dark, they also limit the field of vision, potentially diminishing the pilots’ situational awareness. That will likely be a key data point investigators will consider in determining the cause of this crash.
“We anticipate that the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor at the right altitude at the time of the incident,” he said.
The airliner “was doing everything right” before the collision, using the same track as other passenger planes use, Trump told reporters at Thursday’s press conference. But for reasons that remain unclear less than 24 hours after the crash, the Black Hawk was “pretty much at the same height” as the plane’s path and was “going at an angle that was unbelievably bad,” Trump said. He also noted that multiple investigations are ongoing into the incident that will get to the bottom of what transpired.
Meanwhile, the Army has paused 12th Aviation Battalion flights for 48 hours while senior officials review the incident, Hegseth said.
Unified command for this incident has shifted to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which will be leading the investigation, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a Thursday morning press conference.
Few other details have been released regarding what caused the collision.
“Obviously it is not standard to have aircraft collide,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters. “I want to be clear on that. But prior to the collision the flight paths that were being flown from the military and from American, that was not unusual for what happens in the DC air space. And as this investigation moves forward, we will be able to provide more information to you about the details.”
“At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft,” said American Airlines CEO Robert Eisen. “These are experienced pilots. I know that the captain had almost six years with PSA, the first officer almost two years.”
Even before the cause is determined, Army Secretary nominee Dan Driscoll suggested that these training missions might need to change flightpaths.
“It’s an accident that seems to be preventable, from what we can tell it today,” Driscoll said of the disaster when asked by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen how the Army will keep military training flights out of harm’s way, according to a CBS News Tweet.
“There are appropriate times to take risk and there are inappropriate times to take risk. I don’t know the details around this one,” Driscoll said.
If he is confirmed, “I think we might need to look at where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be near at an airport like Reagan,” he added.
As the investigation unfolds, the grim and difficult task of recovering bodies is ongoing. During the morning press conference, officials said that 27 bodies from the airliner and one from the helicopter had been recovered so far. A dive team also found what appears to be one of the black boxes from the mid-air crash, CBS News reported on X.
“Debris and human remains are washing up on the Virginia side of the Potomac River,” CBS News Senior White House Reporter Jennifer Jacobs stated on X.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to rescue anyone, but we are in the recovery mode right now,” said Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority CEO Jack Carter, adding that he expects DCA to reopen at 11 a.m.
Top U.S. and Russian figure skaters were among the 60 airline passengers who perished.
“U.S. Figure Skating, the organization that serves as the sport’s national governing body, confirmed the plane’s passengers included several of its members, who had attended a prestigious training camp for novice and intermediate skaters in Wichita, Kansas, where the flight took off,” CBS News reported.
“These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement, the news outlet stated. “We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
While Trump and Hegseth have made their initial statements, the coming days will provide a fuller picture about what happened and how it can be prevented from happening again.
Update: 3:00 PM Eastern—
This morning, the TWZ identified the most critical questions surrounding this disaster at this time:
1.) Does the helicopter route, including its max altitude block, intercept the glideslope (or general path) or very near to it for Runway 33?
2A.) If yes, why does this exist and why wasn’t there extreme vigilance to deconflict aircraft when 33 is in use?
2B.) If no, was the helicopter too high or the plane too low, or a mix of both?
These are the critical questions we are asking at this time. We have also engaged two experienced pilots with a lot of time operating in this exact area about their experiences and thoughts on the incident. That story should be coming later today.
It’s worth noting that Runway 33 is not set up for instrument landing system (ILS) approaches. It is a visual approach only runway. In this case, the CRJ requested to be switched to this runway while on approach to runway 1, and was cleared to do so. The approach often includes breaking off the straight-in approach to runway 1 and executing a relatively tight turn that terminates as the jet crosses back over the Potomac and establishes itself on a short final, which is where the collision occurred. The Black Hawk pilots were asked to spot this traffic and it’s not clear if the change in runway assignment was a factor in them seemingly spotting the wrong aircraft, or the right one, but then misjudging its position. Even with a maximum altitude of 200 feet, the height difference between a helicopter passing under the approach path is tight. It isn’t clear if helicopters are generally held back from proceeding under the approach path if an aircraft is turning final.
The airspace around Reagan National is extremely crowded and complex, with the air defense overlay adding another layer of the severity if mistakes are made. Helicopters have routes that are clearly prescribed that they must stick to closely under visual flight rules. Doing multiple stories about this airspace over the years, pilots have told TWZ how chaotic the airspace can be to the point of it being a real concern.
Regardless, the helicopter corridor through or just below the approach path of Runway 33 is of major interest and we will let you know our findings as soon as we can.
The pilots of the CRJ have been identified as Captain Jonathan Campos and First Officer Sam Lilley.
Update: 3:40 PM Eastern—
As you can see in this FAA map prescribing helicopter routes through this highly controlled area, this section of the route has helicopters dropping to a maximum altitude of just 200 feet for helicopter traffic:
That should put the helicopter below the approach path of the CRJ, although not by a lot.
Update: 5:59 PM Eastern –
Thursday afternoon, Jonathan Koziol – a subject matter expert and retired Army aviator now working for the Aviation Directorate Chief of Staff within the Department of the Army’s top headquarters at the Pentagon – briefed the media on the disaster.
He declined to answer a question about whether the helicopter was flying too high at the time of the crash.
“Again, we’ll have to wait till all tapes are pulled,” he pointed out. “But right now, the maximum altitude for Route 4 over the river is 200 feet MSL, so that’s what’s depicted, and you can look this up.”
Asked about whether the flight would have benefited from having a fourth crew member, Koziol suggested that the aircraft was sufficiently manned as it was. Though the helicopter was flying at night in crowded airspace, Koziol said having a second crew chief looking out the other side of the aircraft for added situational awareness “would not have impacted this actual mission.”
“This is a relatively easy corridor to fly, because you’re flying down the center of the river, and it’s very easily identifiable, especially at night,” Koziol explained.
The crews were “probably using their night vision goggles,” Koziol said. While “helpful at night” they are not required.
He acknowledged that wearing night vision goggles does impede peripheral vision.
“You don’t have that great peripheral vision with night vision goggles on, because you’re looking through two tubes, but we train in depth-scanning techniques for our crew members – both front seaters, the pilots – and the crew member in the back, which is a standard for a training flight of three personnel.”
The backseater was “a very experienced crew chief and understood the National Capital Region very well.”
The pilots were very experienced as well, Koziol pointed out.
“The instructor pilot for this mission was the designated pilot in command…doing the evaluation,” he stated. That pilot had about 1,000 flight hours while the one he was evaluating had about 500 flight hours.
This crew would have been working together to ensure the best situational awareness possible, Koziol stated.
“There’s aircrew coordination training that we drill into our pilots and evaluate…to ensure that we’re all looking outside the aircraft, searching for any obstacles in our way, either flying or on the ground, as we do approaches. In this circumstance, flying this route, they’d be in contact with ATC. ATC would notify them of whatever traffic was in and around the airport, and then they would search, and then the proper response back and forth with aircrews with the air traffic control is to verify a response of either ‘I have visual contact with that aircraft’ or ‘I don’t.’”
Once the safety investigation is complete, Koziol said there will be a better idea of “whether or not they saw” the airliner they collided with.
Update 6:06 PM Eastern –
The air traffic control tower at DCA was adequately staffed at the time of the crash, Politico reported.
“An official familiar with tower operations granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly said the number of controllers working at the tower on Wednesday evening was adequate,” the publication stated. “But the supervisor decided to combine the duties from two controllers down to one earlier — a move that typically happens after 9:30 P.M. — allowing one controller to monitor both airline flights and helicopter traffic.”
The official was addressing stories that emerged Thursday saying that controller staff was abnormal, Politico explained.
Email the authors: howard@twz.com, geoff@twz.com