Update, 12:30am: President Trump has posted the following statement about the crash on Truth Social:
Update, 12:10am: No survivors have been found.
The US Army has confirmed that, “The aircraft involved in tonight’s incident was an Army UH-60 helicopter from Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion, out of Davison Army Airfield, Fort Belvoir during a training flight.”
This video shows the helicopter flying into the passenger plane:
BREAKING: Another video shows the moment of the passenger plane colliding with army helicopter at Potomac River near Washington D.C. airport. pic.twitter.com/mesUFqr8CE
— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) January 30, 2025
Here is the ATC playback of the helicopter (PAT25) and the plane (JIA5342) collision:
Official Air Traffic Control radar captures today’s collision near Washington, DC between a passenger aircraft and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter.
CA (Collision Alert) signals heightened ATC attention, not imminent impact.
Source: @avgeekjake pic.twitter.com/Tg2er8s36p
— Clash Report (@clashreport) January 30, 2025
Helicopter images of rescue boats surrounding a crumpled fuselage section from AA Flight 5342 floating in the Potomac. pic.twitter.com/N5qwaMmmfK
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) January 30, 2025
Update, 10:45pm: There were 3 soldiers onboard the Black Hawk helicopter.
Update, 10:28pm: American confirms that there were 60 passengers and 4 crewmembers onboard the flight.
Originally posted at 9:57pm:
American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita, KS to Washington/DCA, operated by PSA on a CRJ-700, has collided in air with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.
The crash happened over the Potomac River before landing at Reagan National Airport.
PSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines. PSA’s CRJ-700 have 65 passenger seats onboard.
The mid-air collision and explosion was caught on video:
Webcam at the Kennedy Center caught an explosion mid-air across the Potomac. https://t.co/v75sxitpH6 pic.twitter.com/HInYdhBYs5
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) January 30, 2025
This is the first major domestic accident since the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 operated by Colgan Air from Newark to Buffalo on 2/12/2009. 50 people died in that crash, and many new aviation rules came as a result of that crash, including pilot fatigue rules, and an increase in minimum pilot experience from 250 to 1,500 hours.
It’s unclear why the plane’s collision avoidance system failed to avoid the crash, though that’s sure to be investigated in the coming months and years ahead.
Our thoughts and prayers are with those onboard and their families as search and rescue efforts are underway.
HT: chff
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29 Comments On "First Major Domestic Crash In 16 Years: American Airlines Regional Jet Crashes With Military Operated Black Hawk Helicopter In DC"
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Did anybody give out the amount of passengers on this flight?
No, that will take a little more time to come out. The plane can accommodate up to 65 passengers.
60 pass+4 crew
Yup, updated the post already.
60 “souls” = an avaiation term, not related to survival status of passengers.
I have the ATC recording ….. So sad
Can you post it?
Were can the ATC recording be found?
Is it possible to fall out of the sky from such height and survive by hitting the water
What were they around a 1,000 Ft approach
Wouldn’t hitting the water from 1,000 feet impact like hitting concrete?
Terrible….
From the video it looks like the helicopter rear ended the plane? How did that happen??
I’m listening to the Law Enforcement, EMS, and FD response on Broadcastify. It seems there is still much confusion amongst the responding agencies. This is a tragic incident.
Were can the ATC recording be found?
Looks intentional. Possible terror attack. Who was the pilot?
The flight radar footage seems to show the plane off course during the whole approach am I wrong?
It wasn’t there original planned approach but you can hear atc dirctiing them to turn to runway 33 and that’s exactly what they were doing
So sad, though stories like this remind me of one of the all time posts written by Dan
https://www.dansdeals.com/more/dans-commentary/small-miracles/a-chilling-and-awe-inspiring-malaysia-air-flight-370-story/
Live emergency response:
https://www.broadcastify.com/webPlayer/1605
Military aircraft often don’t broadcast an ADSB signal, so the jet wouldn’t have been aware of the proximity.
Seems like this is a time when a conspiracy theory makes the most sense. Who was the pilot of the helicopter? Radical Islamist recruit?
Look at the released footage, the helicopter drove straight into the plane, the pilot would have had to be blind or intoxicated, or both to miss it. No chance that this wasn’t foul play here.
You may be missing an obvious option here.
First? Only, I pray!
What if China built some part of one of the planes, and has been angry at Trump for a few things….
Atc audio https://youtu.be/CiOybe-NJHk
“It’s unclear why the plane’s collision avoidance system failed to avoid the crash”- How can that avoid a crash thats from a moving object coming towards it rom the side when the plane is just seconds from touch down? There was literally no time to course correct at that point
The post was written before that information came out.
Were there any survivors?
No unfortunately