At around 9:00 pm local time on Wednesday 29 January 2025, the US was hit with its worst aviation disaster for over 15 years. A US military helicopter collided with an American Airlines commercial passenger jet in the skies above Washington DC and officials have confirmed that there are no survivors among the Bombardier CRJ700’s 64 passengers and crew and that the three army servicemen aboard the Sikorsky H-60 chopper were also killed.

Air traffic control appeared to warn helicopter

The helicopter was reported by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to be operating an annual proficiency flight and performing a night evaluation, with its crew equipped with night-vision goggles. At the time of writing, according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the black box and flight data recorders have not been recovered but are expected to be found. 

For now, it’s not clear how the B Company, 12^th Aviation Battalion craft, from Fort Belvoir in Virginia, managed to hit the passenger plane, especially since initial air traffic control (ATC) audio seems to prove a controller warned the helicopter about the plane and the helicopter pilot confirmed he was aware of it.

The plane caught fire and broke into at least three pieces on impact, falling into Washington’s icy Potomac River. A huge rescue operation, involving 300 rescuers on rubber boats, took place, but NTSB member Todd Inman informed the press that there were no signs the American Airlines crew had time to deploy evacuation slides allowing any escape attempts.

@rtenews Surveillance footage shows the moment an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington DC. President Donald Trump has confirmed that there were no survivors after the crash. Link in bio for latest developments 📲 #washington #americanairlines #blackhawk #rtenews ♬ original sound – RTÉ News

Heads of Coast Guard, Transport Security and Aviation Security all fired before crash

The crash follows a rocky few years for US aviation, during which a number of near-misses, chronic ATC staff shortages and manufacturing safety incidents, have caused widespread industry concern. President Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had worked on these issues, investing $5 billion in upgrades and hiring.

Since his investiture, President Trump had come under criticism in the US press for implementing what The Mirror called a “dangerous” federal hiring freeze. He fired the heads of the Coast Guard, and the Transportation Security Administration, and disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee in the days preceding the crash. It was a strategy he had been warned could lead to air traffic accidents by commentators such as Professor Thomas Schaller, a Political Science specialist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Trump falsely blames disabled workers

In the hours following the crash, Trump appeared in press conferences to pass the blame for the deadly accident on to so-called “diversity hires” such as Black and ethnic minority people and disabled people working for the Federal Aviation Administration.

@metrouk ‘We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.’ Donald Trump has implied, without evidence, that diversity efforts were at fault after an American Airlines plane collided with a U.S. Army helicopter at Washington airport, killing 67 people. When asked if the crash was caused by diversity hiring, he said: ‘It just could have been.’ #washington #planecrash #rumours #pressconferenence #usanews ♬ original sound – Metro

He also blamed the Biden administration for allowing them to work, making the false accusation that the FAA website allows people with “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism” to apply for ATC roles. This is not the case, as the UK’s Independent pointed out: “the requirements for controllers have long included specific physical and mental health standards.”