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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[RodgerDodger]

Circiling is inheritly a visual manuever that can only be performed under VFR, and as a visual maneuver, the pilots are unfortuanely responsible for terrain and traffic avoidance, despite them being virtually unable to see the other aircraft. There was no instrument approach being used to runway 33, so the approach path did not need to be protected. Military aircraft around the Potomac usally give a courtesy call to DCA tower, but they aren't required to and the controllers don't really issue instructions to them such as "Remain east of the Potomac." Since they were circling, and thus ATC was not responsible for seperation, the tower controller was probably issuing a takeoff clearance or visually looking runway 1 and its approach path and not the aircraft circling 33.

Who knows what the fuck the helo was looking at, obviously not the extremely busy airport off the left, or for aircraft doing something absolutely routine at that airport. The military crashes basically every month. I personally think they were the most responsible and negligent, but that's neither here nor there. They weren't paying attention playing in the street.

Great info, thank you. From the ATC recordings that are out the Controller had warned the helo about the CRJ and had instructed them to get visual on the airliner and pass behind it. The last communication with the Helo appears to be the ATC asking "Do you have visual on the CRJ700?" (one way or another the answer was apparently yes. he had eyes on the CRJ. It was filling his windscreen.

 

[Walmart Wagie]

I heard this news on the radio while driving and my heart sank . This shit isn’t supposed to happen here. Fuck. I’m just glad it wasn’t a terrorist attack.

 

[Jean des Esseintes]

 

[clipartfan92]

https://x.com/JoshSukoff/status/1884825840791282066 (archive.ph)



https://x.com/AZ_Intel_/status/1884836976022421589 (archive.ph)

https://x.com/JoshSukoff/status/1884832277814784490 (archive.ph)

 

[Omori Boy]

I don’t want to be too political but I can be certain that Biden would be asleep right now and Kamala would be drunk.

You're crazy, she would be wired on coke.

 

[Hecate]

MLAT requires multiple ground stations to hear the transponder for a fix so if it's low and in an area without a lot of people running ADS-B/MLAT receivers then it's entirely possible it won't show up.

First fix was at 1000ft, so it could have originally taken off some distance away.

excuse me as im not familiar with how these stations function but nearest station was ADSBX_6118, roughly 2 miles away to the southwest. which is roughly the same direction the heli was coming from? if im understanding this correctly shouldnt the heli have been picked up earlier? legitimately dont know

 

[RodgerDodger]

NBC news says 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.

That's actually much better than expected. I used to be a Dive Team Lead for these sorts of things. Finding something identifiable as an airplane or helicopter is unusual and rare. More often you will find either a giant hunk of compressed metal. Or, more commonly, you will find a field of broken swords and razorblades. Like trying to swim in a quisinart. That sounds like they have 2 recognizable sections of fuselage. And helicopters will always be in the water upside down. The gearbox is at the top, and it drags the helicopter over and down. The fact that they describe it as an upside down helicopter means that its not a field of razor blades.

 

[George Lucas]

You're crazy, she would be wired on coke.

Shut up faggot.

 

[Dude Snakes]

This is what happens when you don't have Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

If you aren't joking kill yourself.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Has he always been this dumb/schizo-y or is there someone standing next to him schizobabbling into his ear 24/7?

He's asking the same questions we are.

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

New hashtag going round #TrumpsFault

https://xcancel.com/search?q=%23TrumpsFault

 

[Google.com]

excuse me as im not familiar with how these stations function but nearest station was ADSBX_6118, roughly 2 miles away to the southwest. which is roughly the same direction the heli was coming from? if im understanding this correctly shouldnt the heli have been picked up earlier? legitimately dont know

I've setup an ADSB receiver before they are all usually taped to a pole outside some guys house(if he's not lazy and it's not just inside), something on the ground is probably blocking that direction, they pickup high flying aircraft very well but unless you have a lot of clear space they don't pickup low flying craft good at all. I couldn't get mine to pickup anything under 3000 due to obstacles.

 

[Mikoyan]

excuse me as im not familiar with how these stations function but nearest station was ADSBX_6118, roughly 2 miles away to the southwest. which is roughly the same direction the heli was coming from? if im understanding this correctly shouldnt the heli have been picked up earlier? legitimately dont know

Multilateration requires at least three and preferably many more stations to report a position. This should be a very well covered area but even if a number of stations heard its transponder the data is iffy, low precision and unreliable. It's the nature of the beast. Also the lower it was flying - in this case quite low - the iffier reception will be.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Audio between PAT-25 and the Reagan ATC. The controller asks PAT25 (BlackHawk) if he sees the CRJ (plane). PAT25 confirms, and requests "Visual Separation". That means that he is affirming seeing the plane, and will himself work to avoid it. #planecrash

So he did see the plane and said he would try to avoid it. So one of two things happened:
1. Blackhawk pilot was massively incompetent/had some sort of medical emergency that compromised him and ran into the plane anyway
2. Blackhawk pilot lied and committed his own mini-9/11 into a jet plane

That's actually much better than expected. I used to be a Dive Team Lead for these sorts of things. Finding something identifiable as an airplane or helicopter is unusual and rare. More often you will find either a giant hunk of compressed metal. Or, more commonly, you will find a field of broken swords and razorblades. Like trying to swim in a quisinart. That sounds like they have 2 recognizable sections of fuselage. And helicopters will always be in the water upside down. The gearbox is at the top, and it drags the helicopter over and down. The fact that they describe it as an upside down helicopter means that its not a field of razor blades.

Cold comfort if anything, it mostly means that the bodies are intact, if they weren't vaporized by the explosion in the air. That's what killed everybody.

 

[Temu Glock Switch]

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Okay, wow. That's a lot more structurally intact than I anticipated given the steep bank angle eyewitnesses reported. There may be some lucky souls just like when Ethiopian 961 ditched in 1996. I'll be heartbroken if hypothermia killed people in the water. Crazy story, but in the 50s two big airliners collided over NYC, and the only survivor was a boy that fell on to a snowbank. Tragically, he contracted pneumonia during the hours rescuers were searching for him and passed away the next day.

 

[RodgerDodger]

o he did see the plane and said he would try to avoid it. So one of three things happened:

4. He saw what he thought was the CRJ moving away from his flight pathand failed to see the actual CRJ right in front of him at night.

 

[Omori Boy]

He's asking the same questions we are.

A&H isn't known for being right. I still remember when the volcano of La Palma was erupting, and while I was watching videos from a geologist (GeologyHub) who predicted everything perfectly towards the end of the eruption (slowing down), people on here were posting "this is the CALM before the STORM" and "East coast of the US will be destroyed in a couple of weeks, WWG1WGA". So, my guess is the most obvious, heli pilot thought he saw plane, wasn't plane, and crossed in front and kablamo.

 

[Google.com]

So he did see the plane and said he would try to avoid it. So one of three things happened:
1. Blackhawk pilot was massively incompetent/had some sort of medical emergency that compromised him and ran into the plane anyway
2. Blackhawk pilot lied and committed his own mini-9/11 into a jet plane

Its probably he lost sight of it in the dark, looked down at his instruments and looked up and couldn't find the plane again, or was looking at something completely different thinking that was the plane. I really don't think any airport other than DC would allow a helicopter flying around the approaches like that especially when they are that busy.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Okay, wow. That's a lot more structurally intact than I anticipated given the steep bank angle eyewitnesses reported. There may be some lucky souls just like when Ethiopian 961 ditched in 1996. I'll be heartbroken if hypothermia killed people in the water. Crazy story, but in the 50s two big airliners collided over NYC, and the only survivor was a boy that fell on to a snowbank. Tragically, he contracted pneumonia during the hours rescuers were searching for him and passed away the next day.

Tragically he was covered in 2nd and 3rd degree burns. And had breathed in the burning gasses. What the hospital at the time called pneumonia was caused by his lungs being badly burned, fluid filled and very quickly badly infected.

 

[DavidS877]

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excuse me as im not familiar with how these stations function but nearest station was ADSBX_6118, roughly 2 miles away to the southwest. which is roughly the same direction the heli was coming from? if im understanding this correctly shouldnt the heli have been picked up earlier? legitimately dont know

There's 2 flavors.

ADS-B where the aircraft transmits its own position, altitude, speed, tail number, etc. This only needs one station and typically updates once per second. It's required for all civilian aircraft in areas such as the airspace around DC. But some military aircraft may still not be equipped or have waivers to turn it off.

MLAT where the aircraft has a transponder which only transmits an identity code provided by ATC and the altitude. And it only transmits when a radar site(or TCAS) interrogates it. It needs multiple stations as was mentioned earlier as they each have to figure out when they "hear" the signal and do some math to determine where it probably is. It's slow since it only can work when a radar site 'pings' the plane, typically in busy airspace about once every 5 seconds, and accuracy can be questionable due to needing very accurate timing due to trying to do math on signals traveling near the speed of light.

In this case it seems unlikely that even having ADS-B would have made a difference as both aircraft were supposed to be doing "see and avoid" and the airliner's TCAS works perfectly fine using just transponder signals. It just would have given us armchair quarterbacks a better picture of the incident.