An estimated 67 people are presumed dead after a Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening.
A total of 64 people, including four crew members, were aboard passenger American Airlines Flight 5342, and three soldiers were on the Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that came from Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
AMERICAN AIRLINES PLANE, ARMY HELICOPTER COLLIDE OUTSIDE REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT NEAR WASHINGTON DC
Here is a timeline of events leading up to and immediately after the Wednesday night crash.
Jan. 29
5:18 p.m. CST
AA Flight 5342 departs Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ITC) for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) at 5:18 p.m. CST, or 6:18 p.m. EST, according to air traffic control records from FlightRadar24.
8:39 p.m. EST
An Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter departs Fort Belvoir as part of a training exercise. A senior Army official told Fox News the soldiers were part of a “fairly experienced” Black Hawk crew, and they had night vision goggles aboard the helicopter.
8:40 p.m. EST
Flight 5342 began to descend into DCA from the south.
8:46 p.m.
Air traffic controllers ask Flight 5342 to land on Runway 33, and pilots acknowledge the order.
ATC AUDIO:
8:48 p.m. EST
An air traffic control official asks the Black Hawk (PAT-25) pilot whether he can see the commercial aircraft.
“Do you have the CRJ in sight?” the controller asks, and the helicopter pilot confirms he sees the passenger plane and requests “visual separation,” meaning he is trying to get out of the flight’s path, according to FlightRadar24 audio.
VICTIMS IDENTIFIED IN DC PLANE CRASH INVOLVING AMERICAN AIRLINES JET AND MILITARY HELICOPTER
“PAT-25, do you have the CRJ in sight?” the controller can be heard saying to the helicopter pilot 30 seconds before the crash.
The controller makes another radio call to PAT-25 moments later: “PAT-25, pass behind the CRJ.”
ATC AUDIO REVEALS MOMENT CONTROLLERS SAW DISASTER:
8:48 p.m. EST
Army UH-60 and Flight 5342 then collide over the Potomac River, causing an explosion midair at an altitude of about 300 feet that was caught on camera.
Air traffic controllers can be heard reacting, and asking, “Did you see that?”
8:53 p.m. EST
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) receives phone calls reporting a plane crash over the Potomac.
MPD, D.C. Fire and EMS, and “multiple partner agencies” begin coordinating a search and rescue operation.
9:00 p.m. EST
DCA closes due to an “aircraft emergency.”
9:09 p.m. EST
The DC Fire and EMS Department posts an update on X stating, “Confirmed small aircraft down in Potomac River vicinity Reagan National Airport. Fireboats on scene.”
10:51 p.m. EST
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posts a statement from President Donald Trump to X.
“I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise,” the statement reads.
12:30 a.m. EST
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser holds a press conference with other law enforcement personnel and announces that a passenger aircraft collided with a military aircraft.
DC Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly announces that officials “have recovered 27 people from the plane and one from the helicopter.”
“Despite all these efforts, we are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Donnelly says.
Jan. 30
8:30 a.m. EST
Officials hold a press conference in Washington, D.C., saying all 67 passengers, crew members and soldiers on board both aircraft are presumed dead.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Donnelly says during the briefing. “We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
11:00 a.m. EST
Flights resume landing at DCA; the first aircraft lands at the airport at 11:02 a.m.
A Department of Homeland Security source tells Fox News Digital that there are “no terror concerns” after the collision, and officials suspect the crash was “just a tragedy.”
An internal preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report reviewed by The New York Times says staffing at the air control tower at DCA was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
The controller who was handling helicopters Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from the airport runways, the Times reported. Those assignments are typically assigned to two controllers.
Jan. 31
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that officials “will get to the bottom of what happened here.”
“It’s completely unacceptable in our nation’s capital or anywhere. The military trains, and it trains robustly. And we’re not going to stop training, even though there’s a pause on this unit, on this exercise, which is an important one. And we should have that pause until we get to the bottom of this,” Hegseth said. “…We have to train safely. Something like this can never happen. And it’s completely unacceptable.”
Hegseth adds that he does not “know exactly how the staffing occurred in that particular air traffic control tower.”
WATCH:
“It sounds like there was a shortage [of controllers], and the investigation will tell us more about that,” he said. “But the environment around which we choose pilots or air traffic controllers, as the president pointed out correctly yesterday, better be the highest possible standard — the best of the best who are managing … a flight a minute and managing radio traffic.”
The Federal Aviation Administration reportedly restricts helicopter flights near DCA, telling Reuters the agency is prohibiting most helicopters from areas of two routes near the airport, only allowing first responders into the area.
The routes are believed to be the same ones the Army Black Hawk helicopter was traveling along Wednesday night when it collided with the American Airlines passenger jet.
The FAA also said to lawmakers that the restrictions will remain in place indefinitely as it conducts an investigation, according to Reuters.
“Our union fully supports this action by the FAA,” the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said. “Operations should change, at the very least until we learn more about what led to the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in 24 years. 67 souls were lost not even 48 hours ago — we should not operate as if nothing happened.”
Prior to the deadly collision, there had been a military aircraft-involved crash in Alaska on Tuesday. Officials said a U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jet crashed in Alaska after the pilot managed to safely eject from the aircraft.
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There have been at least 238 deaths and 227 injuries stemming from non-combat U.S. military aircraft crashes since 2012, according to the FAA.
There have also been multiple “close call” incidents at DCA since 2023.
Fox News’ Greg Norman, The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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