By Alexandra Skores, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Multiple failures across different parts of the government caused an Army Black Hawk helicopter to collide with an American Airlines regional jet, operated by PSA Airlines, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a nearly 400-page report released Tuesday.
The January 29, 2025, midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people, making it the deadliest commercial aviation accident in the United States in more than 20 years.
The NTSB’s final report describes a chain of errors where policies and procedures in place to protect the public failed that cold, winter night.
“FAA’s placement of a helicopter route in close proximity to a runway approach path; their failure to regularly review and evaluate helicopter routes and available data, and their failure to act on recommendations to mitigate the risk of a midair collision” were cited as part of the “probable cause” of the crash.
The board also placed blame on an “overreliance” on pilots visually looking out for other aircraft “without consideration for the limitations of the see-and-avoid concept.”
The helicopter crew had been warned by the air traffic controller to look out for the jet and confirmed they saw it moments before the crash. It’s not clear whether they saw the plane or mistook another aircraft for the jet.
The NTSB added the cause of the crash also included air traffic control’s “degraded performance” because two positions had been combined in the tower, and there was no “risk assessment process … which resulted in misprioritization of duties, inadequate traffic advisories, and the lack of safety alerts to both flight crews.”
The report noted the Army’s share of the cause was a failure to train pilots on the margin of error of altimeters, which show altitude, leading to the helicopter flying above the allowed height.
“These answers demonstrate that this tragedy was a result of many systematic failures, and that failed everyone on Flight 5342 and the Army helicopters and the air traffic controllers. This is part of a larger trend where we have to be the ones that put a stop to this,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee at a hearing last week.
The incident heightened public attention to the safety of air travel in 2025 — a year punctuated by the dramatic crash of a Delta Air Lines regional jet landing in Toronto and the fiery crash of a UPS cargo plane taking off from Louisville, Kentucky.
NTSB investigators formally made 50 safety recommendations in the final report, including 33 of them directed to the FAA.
The recommendations call for the aviation agency to implement time limitations for air traffic control supervisors, improve training, limit some commercial air traffic at busy airports, improve crash avoidance technology and amend helicopter route design criteria.
Within weeks of the January 29 crash, Trump administration officials announced Read more