On the night of Jan. 29, a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter collided mid-air and crashed into the Potomac River near Washington D.C. None of the 67 victims aboard the American Airlines passenger jet or the Black Hawk survived, and this has been considered the deadliest plane crash in the country in over 20 years.
Top figure skaters from Russia and the United States were among these victims. Most of the passengers on the jet were skaters and their families. As for the Black Hawk, there were three U.S. soldiers on board. The crew chief was identified as 29-year-old Ryan O’Hara. Black Hawks can go up to speeds of about 180 miles per hour, have night vision, collision warnings, and more. The American Airlines passenger jet was nearly about to land at the Reagan National Airport before the collision, which was about only 24 miles away from the Potomac River. Once the jet crashed, it had been broken into multiple pieces that were sitting in 5-8 feet of water. The helicopter was flipped upside-down at contact with the water, but rescue drivers stated that there was no major damage to the Black Hawk.
While nobody truly knows the cause of this, multiple sources state that the two routes intersected due to air traffic and the control tower. Air traffic is the amount of aircraft in the sky at one specific time in one area. A report from the Federal Aviation Administration states that the amount of staff at the control tower was “not normal for the time of day and volume of air traffic.”
Another source states that the Black Hawk appears to have been flying higher than approved. The army helicopter was supposed to be flying in a different location and lower to the ground as it traversed the busy Reagen National airspace. Before a helicopter can enter any busy commercial airspace, they must get the approval of an air traffic controller. Air traffic controllers are in the control tower and also make the aircraft routes. The requested route, referred to as Route 4 at Reagen, followed a specifically carved out path already known to the air traffic controller and the helicopter pilot. But the helicopter did not follow the intended route, and nobody seems to know the reason for this.
On February 4, officials announced that the remains of all 67 victims from the collision have been recovered, and all major pieces from both the American Airlines jet and the helicopter have been recovered as well. A lidar survey, or a remote sensing technology that uses lasers, found multiple areas underwater which could still have additional debris.
