American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. army helicopter in Washington DC.

January 30th, 2025

By. Scott Jackson

PSA Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ700 passenger jet ,registered N530EA, was on a Wichita, Kansas -to-D.C path when on final approach for runway 33 at Ronald Regan Airport (DCA) when a Blackhawk helicopter, carrying 3 people collided with the plane sending it into the Potomac river with its 60 passengers and 4 crew aboard.  One person on the ground was also killed as both aircraft fell into the river. 

A search a rescue effort involving over 300 people has failed to turn up any survivors. 18 body’s have been pulled from the river at the time of writing. 

Initially, there was some confusion on the identity of the helicopter as it was first mistakenly reported as apart of the DC metro police fleet and then again misidentified as UH-60 used for VIP transport. Heather Chairez, a spokesperson for the joint task force-National Capital Region confirmed the aircraft was a UH-60 Blackhawk on a training mission. 

Airports have altitude restrictions for helicopters, usually keeping them around 200ft above ground level at the point of impact the plane would have been around 400-500 ft. Audio released after the accident confirms that the plane was pointed out to the helicopter crew. It’s likely that when asked to confirm they could see the plane, they might have looked at another plane that was coming in at the same time to land on a different runway. The plane was in a blind spot that would have been difficult to see.

More information will come out in the following days. This is all based on information I’ve gathered from statements given by officials as well as open sources and could possibly be flawed.

Info will be added here as it come out.

Updates.

• Helicopter was with Bravo Company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It was conducting a training flight at the time of the crash.
• Several aviation enthusiasts around the DC area have said that a crash like this around Ronald Reagan was a case of “when not if” Helicopters regularly fly that route down the river coming within a couple hundred feet of airplanes on final.

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Hi, this is Scott. I just wanted to say that my heart goes out to those affected by this accident. Tragedies like this are the hardest for me to write about but I know that doesn’t compare to the pain felt by those affected.