united state military helicopter accidents just like the one which eliminated an industrial American Airlines journey over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night are extraordinarily uncommon, but there has truly been an uptick in these occurrences in current instances, in response to military stats and an aeronautics skilled.
A complete quantity of 64 people, consisting of vacationers and journey group contributors, have been aboard AA Flight 5342 from Wichita to Reagan National Airport (DCA). Three troopers have been finishing up a coaching process on the Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that originated from Fort Belvoir inVirginia
“It’s concerning, certainly, the number of incidents that there have been,” Timothy Loranger, an aeronautics lawyer at Wisner Baum and a Marine Corps skilled, knowledgeableFox News Digital “But if you compare it to the thousands and thousands of hours of flights that occur without any incident … that’s all very good.”
The accident has truly triggered considerations regarding simply how such a damaging mishap can happen in amongst one of the vital firmly regulated airspaces within the nation and the globe. The final appreciable lethal enterprise accident occurred in 2009, when a Continental Airlines journey collapsed proper into a house in Buffalo, New York, eliminating 49 people.
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Crew get wreck of American Airlines Flight 5342 within the Potomac River close to Washington, D.C., onJan 30, 2025. The airplane was related to a lethal accident with a UNITED STATE Army Black Hawk helicopter the earlier night. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)
“Is there something that we can point to? Training? Is the budget of the military sufficient to make sure that pilots and the crew have enough training and experience in order to fly those aircraft?” Loranger claimed. “Those are the kinds of questions that have to be asked. If it’s a problem with the aircraft itself, a mechanical issue, what is that? Is it a design issue? Is it a manufacturing issue? Is it a maintenance issue?”
Military helicopter accidents, whereas uncommon, have truly been going down much more repeatedly over the in 2014, in response to Army data.
AMERICAN AIRLINES AIRPLANE, MILITARY HELICOPTER COLLIDE OUTSIDE REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT TERMINAL NEAR WASHINGTON DC
FBI representatives stand close to particles, after American Airlines Flight 5342 rammed a Black Hawk helicopter whereas coming near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and collapsed proper into the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, onJan 30, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Fiscal yr 2024 had one of the vital excessive aeronautics occurrences that brought about casualties contemplating that 2014 and probably the most terrible value of fatalities and excessive accidents from occurrences per 100,000 hours contemplating that 2007, according to Army statistics.
Fox News counted on the very least 10 fatalities from united state military helicopter accidents alone in 2024, consisting of 5 Marines in the exact same airplane, and a number of other others harm. Since 2012, there have truly been 21 Black Hawk accident fatalities.
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Loranger referred to as the uptick in military helicopter fatalities in 2014 “concerning.”
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth knowledgeable “Fox & Friends” on Friday that authorities “will get to the bottom of what happened here.”
“It’s completely unacceptable in our nation’s capital or anywhere. The military trains, and it trains robustly. And we’re not going to stop training, even though there’s a pause on this unit, on this exercise, which is an important one. And we should have that pause until we get to the bottom of this,” Hegseth claimed. “…We have to train safely. Something like this can never happen. And it’s completely unacceptable.”
SEE: HEGSETH SWEARS TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS
The instructor pilot accountable that was flying the Black Hawk on Wednesday for a coaching process clearly had 1,000 flying hours, which is considered extraordinarily educated, and the co-pilot that was moreover being assessed had 500 flying hours, which is considered an extraordinary amount of expertise, in response to a united state authorities that spoke with Fox News.
“This is a relatively easy route,” an Army major warrant police officer 5 with years of expertise flying Army helicopters knowledgeable press reporters on the Pentagon onThursday The pilot was flying down the ability of the river, which is often darkish, probably utilizing night imaginative and prescient security glasses. Memorial Bridge would definitely have been their final checkpoint.
The Jan 29 Washington, D.C., plane-helicopter accident map.
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Military and numerous different federal authorities helicopters fly the exact same course virtually every day, the aged Army pilot and warrant police officer knowledgeable press reporters.
“This should not have been a problem,” the authorities claimed.
Loranger defined DCA as “a very complicated airspace, very busy airspace.”
Photos of targets adhering to the accident in between an American Airlines jet and a UNITED STATE Black Hawk helicopter. (Getty Images)
“There’s a lot of airplanes and aircraft flying in and out,” he claimed, together with that aircrafts have methods in place created to help present particulars to pilots regarding pilots or numerous different gadgets flying close-by to remain away from accidents just like the one onWednesday It could have been onerous for the enterprise plane and the Black Hawk to see every numerous different in the course of the evening over the river, Loranger claimed.
Staffing on the air management tower at DCA was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” in response to an inside preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) document assessed by The New York Times.
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The controller that was caring for helicopters Wednesday night was moreover advising aircrafts that have been landing and leaving from the flight terminal paths, the Times reported. Those jobs are often designated to 2 controllers.
An plane flies close to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, within the penalties of the accident of American Eagle Flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that collapsed proper into the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, onJan 30, 2025. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
“I don’t know exactly how the staffing occurred in that particular air traffic control tower,” Hegseth knowledgeable “Fox & Friends.” “It sounds like there was a shortage [of controllers], and the investigation will tell us more about that. But the environment around which we choose pilots or air traffic controllers, as the president pointed out correctly yesterday, better be the highest possible standard — the best of the best who are managing … a flight a minute and managing radio traffic.”
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Fox News Digital has truly related to the FAA.
The air management tower at Reagan Airport has truly been understaffed for a few years with 19 fully accredited controllers since September 2023. The FFA and controllers’ union, nonetheless, required 30 controllers in its staffing targets.
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, Liz Friden and Louis Casiano added to this document.
