I had to wait several days before even sitting down to think about writing about the crash of American Eagle flight 5342 operated by PSA Airlines. The initial shock gave way to anger as the government put forth one of the most absurd responses to an airline accident I’ve ever seen. And now, it’s just a swirling mix of sadness and fear for what the future may bring after an accident that by its very nature of having happened in Washington, DC is bound to be driven by political winds instead of sanity.
We all know the basics of what happened by now. It was just before 9pm Eastern Time on January 29 when American Eagle 5342 — a CRJ-700 coming from Wichita, operated by American’s wholly-owned subsidiary PSA — was on final approach into Washington/National airport (DCA) . It was originally planning to land on runway 1, but a very standard request to have the airplane circle to land on runway 33 was given. The pilots accepted.
At the same time, a Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission. It was heading south, flying a visual approach toward DCA and was supposed to stay under 200 feet. The controller asked the helicopter to confirm that it had the PSA aircraft in sight, and that was indeed confirmed. Moments later, the helicopter ran right into the CRJ at what appears to be an altitude slightly above 200 feet. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River, and all onboard were lost. That includes 60 passengers, 2 pilots, and 2 flight attendants on the CRJ-700 along with 3 crew on the Black Hawk.
That evening created a mix of awful emotions in me. There was just the pure shock of the first US airline hull loss resulting in fatalities since 2009 when the Colgan Q400 went down in Buffalo. There was also an eerie sense of familiarity. I went to George Washington University, and I spent plenty of time at Gravelly Point watching airplanes. I volunteered for Travelers Aid in the airport itself. It hits different when you can picture exactly what happened and where.
And then there was the strange historical coincidence that this was a mid-air collision operated by a PSA T-tail. Of course, this is a different PSA than the one that had a 727 collide with a Cessna 172 when they lost visual separation, but that accident — which remains the worst in California history — still looms large even nearly 50 years later. The reminder just added to that emotional stew.
Adding to the mix of feelings was a strange one I did not expect — positivity. How so? Well, American did a great job of communicating during the aftermath. American owns PSA outright, and it treated this as its own. There was no deferring media to talk to someone at the subsidiary. I had a statement from the airline in my inbox very early on.
It wasn’t much later that evening when CEO Robert Isom put out a near perfect video. As I said over on Bluesky at the time, this was a good message that was informative, timely, and struck the right tone.
Robert looked and sounded distraught, and you know what? I have no doubt he was. Airline comms are so much better when they don’t try to polish things. Further updates continued to be posted and linked from the airline’s homepage.
This positive feeling was fleeting, of course, in the face of such tragedy, but it was completely extinguished in the hours to come, starting with the absolute disaster of a press conference hosted by President Trump the following morning. I expect speculation from social media and elsewhere, but I do not expect it to come from the President of the United States. Well, I mean, I do expect that now, but it’s not something I expect from the office of the President.
Buried under the slurs against DEI, President Obama, President Biden, and Secretary Buttiegeg was a grave concern about air traffic control staffing. This is and has been an issue for ages, but there is nothing to suggest that it contributed to the crash. Still, because it had been put out there, now media outlets started cranking out stories about how the tower was understaffed. This takes away from the important work that needs to be done in relation to this accident itself.
Further taking away from that important work is the parade of ass-kissing that now seems to be required. It wasn’t surprising to see praise for President Trump flow from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Vice President JD Vance. But this brutal statement pushed out by American CEO Robert Isom shows how deep this goes.
We are all hurting as we continue to grieve the loss of our passengers and team members. I thank President Trump for his leadership on aviation safety. I applaud him, Secretary Duffy and the Administration for taking quick and decisive action today to restrict helicopter activity around DCA. In the days ahead, we will work tirelessly with the Administration and leaders in Congress to make our aviation system even safer, including by increasing investments in infrastructure, technology and personnel.
This is distracting at best. Now to be fair, the FAA’s decision to limit helicopter traffic around DCA is helpful. It’s also a sensible change despite not knowing what actually happened yet. This is a bandage, but it has an immediate impact. My worry is that we will quickly move beyond sensible measures and into something far worse thanks to political pressures.
Besides the understaffing in the air traffic control tower, I’ve seen accusations that the last minute change to have the PSA flight use runway 33 was a real problem. But again, there is no reason based on anything factual to suggest that these were issues that led to the accident. But even those who may be on the right path and blame the helicopter pilot for causing this disaster can’t know what led to this tragedy.
We know that the helicopter said it had the traffic in sight. Did it have the wrong traffic? Did it get distracted and the helicopter went off course? Was there a mechanical issue that led to the possible climb in altitude that has been reported? We have no idea. You can’t regulate until you know not just what happened but also WHY it happened.
I’m even more concerned about speculation than normal since DCA was involved. This is an airport that probably wouldn’t be open or at least wouldn’t be nearly as crowded if it wasn’t so close to the Capitol. All those Congresspeople care about is being able to fly home to their districts as quickly as possible and getting re-elected. The thought of going to Dulles… how dare you even say it!
That means that incentives are not aligned here. If an action to reduce capacity at the airport by, say, limiting the runways available for landing, were the right thing to do, it probably wouldn’t happen because it would hurt Congress individually and collectively. At the same time, all politicians want to look like they’re doing something to fix what broke. This swirling cocktail of terrible means that it’s entirely possible we could end up with bad legislation that has nothing to do with what actually happened. (See The 1,500-hour rule is ridiculous to learn how legislation can go so wrong when facts are ignored.)
It’s all just so awful, but as always, we will learn in the long run how to prevent this from happening again. For now, we should just patiently wait, but it seems like that’s now impossible. So I find myself just bracing for there not to be too much damage done before we know what exactly went wrong here.
19 comments on “The Crash of American Eagle 5342 is a Tragedy That Shouldn’t Keep Getting Worse… but Might”
I agree 100%. What DJT did was reprehensible and the constant ass kissing is disturbing.
I agree with the sentiment in the story and the comments such as Johnny Jet’s. A sad day for all sorts of reasons.
Same.
The movie Idiocracy was meant to be satirical comedy, not real life!
America is done for. This is just a taste of what is to come.
” It hits different when you can picture exactly what happened and where.”
Well described. I had this awful numbness that night and the next morning for the same reason, understanding exactly where the tragedy occurred, understanding a SAR on the Potomac (rescued once myself not too far away, and having someone I knew drown in the river just southwest of runway 1) and understanding the airspace with the approach to 33 sweeping low across the river. No desire to make the tragedy about yourself but being in the industry and having that history of a connection you just feel… different. Paralyzed.
At least until the trolls showed up on TV the next day. Incoming on this thread surely… should at least out those amongst us.
Fwiw I know a couple of guys with Intellectual Disabilities who work at the FAA, both have been working there for 15+ years (one since the 90s), neither work anywhere near an ATC tower… but if we’re going to blame them for an airline crash, then I’ll credit them with 15 years of unprecedented safety in airtravel while they worked there…
Cranky, while we are discussing horrible things done by horrible leaders can you have a blog post on how the potential upcoming trade war will affect air travel?
I appreciate the comment section of this blog and how respectful most people are. While it is unfortunately done by politicians of all sides after high profile losses of life, I think that (regardless of who does it, and regardless of one’s own politicial preferences/allegiances) most of of the good people here would agree that it is in… less than ideal taste… to immediately politicize a tragedy by fingerpointing and scapegoating while the bodies are still warm and before the facts are known. Beyond that, I suggest that we try to avoid left/right politics here and leave them for other forums.
I agree that given the airspace restrictions and government helicopter traffic, there should be some VERY serious thought given to closing DCA (whether entirely or just to commercial airline traffic), or at the very least placing significant limits on its operations . However, I also agree that because of the “convenience factor” to Congresspeople and their lobbyists, that’s basically a non-starter, as Cranky pointed out.
Everything I have seen suggests that there was no malice or intentional act that caused the midair collision itself. It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback after tragedies, and it’s important to identify gaps & make improvements, but it seems like both ATC & pilots did reasonably well. I would even include the pilots of the helicopter in question; given the light pollution, congested airspace, and relative angles, in my opinion it is completely understandable if (as some are speculating) it is true that those pilots mistook another aircraft for the one they were watching for. Stories abound of highly trained Air Force pilots being so confused by light pollution that they attempt to fly formation with the planet Venus.
Given the circumstances and the HUGE amount of helicopter traffic in the area around DCA, as a nation we’re fortunate that events like this do not occur more often, both at DCA and at other airports. Without intending to diminish the tragedy in question (every death is a tragedy to those impacted), it really is amazing that this is the first time in FIFTEEN YEARS that there has been a commercial airline hull loss in the US resulting in fatalities. Let us not forget that it was only a generation ago (90s/early 2000s) that there were often multiple air crashes per year in the US with fatalities. For context (again without trying to diminish this tragedy or those impacted by it), a planeload of people in the US die from car accidents EACH DAY (120 per day, over 42,000 per year).
My heart goes out not only to the victims and their families, but also to the pilots, ATC, and first responders who witnessed and were involved in the tragedy and immediate response to it. I pray that everyone gets the help & support (especially mental health & grief support) they need to deal with what happened.
I respectfully disagree Kilroy… i do not believe we are in an era where we can separate politics from the hobbies, trades, and commercial activities in which we engage, as there are people hoping to use that disengagement to do more harm…
In this instance there was no FAA head, Which absolutely hampered an initial coordinated message and response, and there was no FAA head solely because of politics. It’s inseparable
Perhaps I should have been more clear. I agree that politics are intertwined in most things and had an effect on this. What I meant was that I don’t like to see the extreme & simplistic drum-beating partisanship & name-calling (from either side), such as “X politician/cause good, Y politician/cause bad”.
I think it’s reasonable to argue (as you do) that there was no FAA head due largely to politics and that the lack of an FAA head hampered an initial coordinated message & response.
However, when someone (again, from either side) tries to argue or speculate ***without a reasonably solid factual basis*** that the incident would have been 100% avoided if X policy from other side they disagree with had not been in place, or immediately tries to use the loss of life to make a non sequitur attack condemning others they don’t like… That I don’t like to see, even if it is “politics as usual”, and I lose respect for people who behave like that.
Killroy is normally right in these situations, but here Mike is correct as we are watching “Idiocracy” in real time & this is an unfortunate outcome of it.
Followed in rapid succession by Musk taking control of the U.S. payment system (which includes SS). Fast sinking into the slime. Facts be damned. we got the President we voted for. Wonder how long that will take to sink in.
A few years ago I was at TUS waiting for my flight and observing fighter planes flying much faster than commercial aircraft doing touch and go landings, two at the same time next to each other on the same runway like it was some kinda air show between commercial takeoffs and landings. It seemed very dangerous to me and made me wonder how it could be permissible to conduct military and commercial operations not only in the same vicinity, but in the case of TUS at the same airport. Does anybody have an answer for that?
The response to this event is horrifying to me.
Reality: a helicopter pilot made a mistake, crashed into a landing plane, and killed 67 people.
Fantasy: somehow a bunch of nonwhite people in the ATC tower made an unsafe environment and led to the crash.
And American’s CEO bought into that? Jesus, people, are we really at the stage where companies are terrified to criticize the Boss for fear of retaliation? Is this what you guys really wanted to see when you voted for him?
I will leave it alone, and avoid getting any more political. But you guys, I have flown myself, not just as passenger, but as a private pilot. There was nothing out of the ordinary or wrong about what the ATC did. NOTHING. They properly alerted both planes, and they got the proper responses. That happens all the time – you get a call from the ATC, helicopter traffic passing to your left and below, notify when you have visually. Then you respond, “traffic in sight”, and the ATC figures you are good to go.
The helicopter pilot said he saw the American plane. What else was ATC supposed to do?
I believe that the chopper actually saw a different plane, or other lights, and never saw the PSA jet. Now how the chopper got to the wrong altitude is something we need to look at, whether it was a faulty gauge or pilot error. But what this was not was anything to do with ATC. And it is disgusting that the President of the United States used the deaths of 67 people to try to make political points about his predecessor.
And it’s even worse that a CEO enabled it.
Regardless of the tone that some may use to interpret how someone else spoke about the tragedy, there are several realities that have quickly been established in the wake of the DCA crash that will have significant impacts on military and commercial aviation:
1. The FAA, not the DoD, has at least temporarily banned the high volume helicopter traffic that operated very close to DCA
2. DCA is now operating almost entirely as a single runway airport which has led to near continuous ground delay programs at DCA since the day of the accident.
The implications of the above are clear.
Even given that DC is a high-security location that needs to be protected, the military’s use of helicopter routes around DCA was way in excess of necessary. Add in that different processes (VFR vs IFR), communications, and technology was used by military and civilian aviation around DCA and the accident was avoidable and the gaps should have been fixed a long time ago.
There have been calls for DCA’s air traffic capacity to be cut even as new exemption routes were just added. AA at DCA not only uses a higher percentage of regional jets at DCA than at just about any other US airline hub but there was a significant amount of connecting traffic that was flowing over DCA. Given the scarce nature of space at DCA, connecting traffic needs to be moved away from DCA and the increased ATC delays – which are not likely to go away – will likely force AA to reduce its use of DCA as a connecting point.
While talk of reducing the number of flights has not happened yet, they inevitably will if only because of operational integrity. Regional jet flights, esp. those that carry high percentages of connections – at least relative to other flights – will likely be the first to be reduced – and that will impact AA far more than other airlines.
I live in DC, and have been watching and reading the coverage from the beginning. And while there is plenty of ongoing criticism about the number of helicopters in the DCA airspace, it feels like something important is being overlooked.
Those helicopters MUST BE THERE. They are military helicopters that protect and provide security for the Capitol, White House and the entire federal district, as well as the Pentagon. Commercial helicopters, including television stations and traffic reporters, are not allowed anywhere near government buildings or DCA. (The boundary line might actually be the Capital Beltway, but don’t quote me on that.)
People who complain the helicopter involved was on a training flight seem to forget that training flights are necessary to educate new pilots and to keep veteran pilots sharp. That includes flights at night.
Yes, there should probably be better curbs on who can fly where. And commercial air traffic at DCA is far more than it should be or was ever intended. And, while Dulles might seem to be in the boonies, it’s no further removed from the city center than IAH is in Houston, or DFW in Dallas. And Dulles has a Metro line now.
BWI is actually a very reasonable alternative that people like to ignore. But it’s no further out than Dulles, is very accessible, and should be considered more than it is. It also has an Amtrak station at the airport, making it a fast ride from DC’s Union Station.
I agree politicians who want airplanes at their front door have created the DCA problem. But as it’s all sorted out, I hope smart people (if any remain) will realize the military helicopters around DCA are a priority, and not a problem.
I agree. Military MUST stay: it’s the airport that must close. The fact that it’s still there shows the worst side of American politics.
This is the President people voted for.They decided “mean tweets” were worth it.
I mean someone had to do something about egg and gasoline prices…
/s
Good Luck America.
100% Agree. I have a personal connection to1978, my Dad was to be on that flight. My Mom thought he was dead, and then we walk through the door at dinner time, he took an earlier flight. No cell phones or calling cards in those days. This accident put a chill through my soul, something our current president (note the small p) doesn’t have.
My God provide peace and rest for the victims and their families souls. God please the positive and support from American and it’s teams. And thanks to the many positive comments on this site, unlike some others.