Disaster American Airlines Flight Collides With Blackhawk Helicopter Over DC - Several videos shared online showed footage of the collision and the aftermath of the crash.

An American Airlines passenger plane crashed into the Potomac River after colliding midair with a black hawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington, D.C., the Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday (January 29) via CNN.

Several videos shared online showed footage of the collision and the aftermath of the crash.



BREAKING: American Airlines Flight 5342 has collided with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The military aircraft, identified as PAT25, is believed to be a Priority Air Transport mission, typically designated for VIP transport operations.



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Transponder was on as they show on that radar picture. But ADS-B was either off or not installed. The military has wide latitude with how long they have to install ADS-B.

Edit: There is ADS-B tracking for the helicopter as well, not sure why people are saying there's not.

Edit2: Ignore me, it's an MLAT track, computed when multiple ground stations can hear the transponder. Not active ADS-B.
 
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barrow greeter said:
According to the dive teams the plane crashed in only 7 feet of water and is in two large pieces, and the helicopter is nearby flipped upside down.
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From the video of the crash, in my opinion as a lifelong plane enthusiast, doesn't matter how much water there was, the height and speed at which the plane went down is just too much.
 
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Sweeter and Savoury said:
It honestly look to me like the heli aimed for the plane, a mid air collision is pretty damn rare due to the speeds involved.

I wunder if it was some kind of suicide?
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ATC was directing the Helo to pass behind the CRJ and asking if they had visual on the CRJ. Which answers a few questions. The Blackhawk had its transponder on. ATC was vectoring it to cross the runway approach at 90 degrees to the approach path after the CRJ passed. Since the Blackhawk was using some degree of VFR at night in a dense forest of lights the pilots probably saw what they thought was the lights of the CRJ already past their heading and missed seeing the actual plane right in front of them until it was too late. Visual Flight is very tricky at low altitude at night in crowded brightly lit cityscapes. You lose any sense of depth and it is very easy to mistake what lights you are seeing and how they are moving.
 
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A quick rundown on what is known so far about the collision.

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Meat Target said:
Don't most plane crashes happen during takeoff or landing?
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Technically most plane crashes happen when it reaches the ground. But yes Takeoff and Landing are the most dangerous part of the flight, where the most things can go wrong, with the least time to do anything about it. Once the plane is up at altitude some thing really catastrophic has to happen to bring it down. Bomb, Missile, Major structural failure, fuel starvation for example. But takeoff and landing little shit can cause catastrophe. Bird Strikes. Runway debris, engine failure at an inconveniently low altitude moment. Captain Heart Attack at an inconveniently low moment, Plane misconfigured for takeoff or landing, Pakistani Pilots, non catastrophic failures having catastrophic outcomes.
 
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RodgerDodger said:
Technically most plane crashes happen when it reaches the ground. But yes Takeoff and Landing are the most dangerous part of the flight, where the most things can go wrong, with the least time to do anything about it. Once the plane is up at altitude some thing really catastrophic has to happen to bring it down. Bomb, Missile, Major structural failure, fuel starvation for example. But takeoff and landing little shit can cause catastrophe. Bird Strikes. Runway debris, engine failure at an inconveniently low altitude moment. Captain Heart Attack at an inconveniently low moment, Plane misconfigured for takeoff or landing, Pakistani Pilots, non catastrophic failures having catastrophic outcomes.
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You can also add South Korean pilots to that list too, given how they manage to crash planes in ways that most other pilots wouldn't do.
 
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