In the early days of 2025, a fatal air crash occurred in the US capital, Washington D.C. On the evening of January 29, 2025, around 8:48 p.m., American Eagle Flight 5342 operated by PSA Airlines collided with a US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, causing both aircraft to crash into the river. The crash resulted in the tragic deaths of all 60 passengers and 4 crew members on Flight 5342, as well as the 3 crew members onboard the Black Hawk helicopter, totaling 67 fatalities.
Currently, the black boxes of both aircraft have been recovered. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States is expected to release a report within 30 days, and American Airlines has announced that the flight number 5342 will no longer be used in the future.
Flight 5342 was a Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft that took off from Wichita, Kansas, in the early evening Eastern Time. It arrived near Reagan Airport at 8:35 p.m., being guided by the control tower for landing. At the time of the incident, visibility in the night sky was reported to be good.
Airport surveillance footage revealed that directly in the path of Flight 5342 during its descent, there was a nearly stationary bright point of light in the air. A rapidly approaching aircraft with collision lights on swiftly intersected with Flight 5342 before bursting into flames and crashing. It appears that the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the accident did not detect the potential collision and slow down before the mid-air collision.
One aspect of this air crash that raises suspicions is why modern aircraft are generally equipped with collision avoidance systems, yet it did not seem to have functioned in this tragic incident.
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