A regional passenger jet carrying around 60 people collided mid-air with a military helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport on Wednesday evening, causing a crash over the Potomac River.
The incident prompted a large-scale emergency response, with authorities scrambling to locate survivors amid the wreckage. All flights in and out of the airport were immediately suspended.
The crash occurred just minutes before the jet was scheduled to land. Air traffic controllers had initially asked the pilots if they could land on the shorter Runway 33, to which they agreed.
‘Tower, did you see that?’
The plane adjusted its approach accordingly, but less than 30 seconds before impact, a controller radioed the helicopter to confirm if it had the jet in sight. Moments later, another call was made instructing, “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Within seconds, the two aircraft collided.
Data from flight tracking sites revealed that the jet’s radio transponder ceased transmitting approximately 2,400 feet short of the runway, right above the middle of the river. Witnesses described seeing a fireball in the sky before debris plummeted into the water below.
In audio from the air traffic control tower around the time of the crash, a controller is heard asking the helicopter, “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?” referring to the passenger aircraft.
Seconds after the collision, another pilot is heard asking, “Tower, did you see that?”
May God Bless their souls: Trump
President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the accident, stating, “May God Bless their souls.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both posted on social media that they were monitoring the situation closely.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the crash took place at around 9pm EST, involving a Bombardier CRJ-701 regional jet operated by American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines. The aircraft had departed from Wichita, Kansas, and was on final approach when it made its ill-fated descent. The military helicopter involved, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, had three soldiers aboard.
Emergency crews, including Coast Guard units, police, and fire rescue teams, swiftly responded. Boats were deployed on the Potomac to search for survivors, but conditions were difficult due to darkness and near-freezing temperatures. Reports indicated that multiple bodies had already been recovered from the river.
Eyewitness Ari Schulman, who was driving near the airport, described seeing a sudden flash in the sky. “Initially, I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. Three seconds later, it was banked all the way to the right. There was a stream of sparks underneath it—like a Roman candle,” he told CNN.
The incident drew comparisons to past aviation disasters, including the 1982 Air Florida crash into the Potomac, which killed 78 people. The last fatal U.S. commercial airline crash occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York, when a Bombardier DHC-8 plane stalled during approach, killing all 50 people on board.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FAA are now working to determine the precise cause of the collision, analysing communication records between the pilots and air traffic controllers in the moments leading up to the crash.