Washington Plane Crash Live: Pentagon says it will launch investigation

Earlier we brought you air traffic control recordings which appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter before it collided with the plane.

We now have some more air traffic control audio from LiveATC.net, a respected source for in-flight recording.

“Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three,” one of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio from around the time of the crash.

“I don’t know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We’re going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future,” another controller remarked.

“Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river,” a third air traffic controller can be heard saying. “It was probably out in the middle of the river,” the controller said. “I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.”

Wednesday’s crash highlighted issues around the congested airspace shared by civilian and military aircraft over the U.S. capital.

Military helicopters are a common sight in the Washington region that is home to numerous military bases.

Over a three-year period ending in 2019, there were 88,000 helicopter flights within 30 miles (48 km) of Reagan National Airport, including about 33,000 military and 18,000 law enforcement flights, the Government Accountability Office said in a 2021 report.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference on Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration would “take appropriate action if necessary to modify flight paths” to ensure adequate separation between civilian airplanes and military helicopters.

There have been several near-miss incidents at Reagan National Airport that have sparked alarm, including a near-collision in May 2024 between an American Airlines jet and a small airplane and one in April 2024 between Southwest and JetBlue airplanes.

A shortage of air traffic controllers has delayed flights and raised safety concerns across the United States.

The FAA in October opened an audit into runway incursion risks at the 45 busiest U.S. airports after a series of near-miss incidents.

The Washington region has three major airports, but Reagan National is closest to the capital.

Because of the short length of its runways, over 90% of flights use its main runway, making it the busiest in the U.S. with over 800 daily takeoffs and landings.

That effectively means a takeoff or landing every minute during much of the day.

Senator Jerry Moran, who heads a Senate aviation subcommittee, told Reuters the immediate focus was on trying to save lives but that after the mission was over, Congress would investigate what went wrong.

“Then we’re going to find out what happened,” Moran said.