The Nationwide Transportation Security Board started its three days of investigative hearings on Wednesday into January’s midair collision between American Airways Flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter close to Washington’s Reagan Nationwide Airport.
On Wednesday morning, the NTSB released thousands of pages of evidence from the crash and the next investigation — together with new video from the top of the runway displaying the crash that killed 67 individuals.
Households of the victims of the crash sat within the viewers of the listening to, a few of whom wore footage of their family members round their necks or on buttons. They broke down in tears as officers performed the video with newly launched surveillance footage of the incident.
Kinfolk of victims attend a Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB) investigative listening to on the January 29 mid-air collision of an Military Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter and American Airways flight 5342 over the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
The crash concerned a regional jet that was flying from Wichita, Kansas, into Washington and collided with an Army helicopter on a coaching flight, killing all 64 passengers and crew on the jet and the three crew members within the helicopter.
Throughout the three-day hearings, the NTSB is predicted to query the Military, Federal Aviation Administration officers and others, and current its discovering on the crash investigation. The NTSB will concentrate on a wide range of subjects within the hearings. The primary day will concentrate on the helicopter’s altimeters and knowledge programs in addition to the design and use of the airspace across the airport.
Nationwide Transportation Security Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy and members Michael Graham and J. Todd Inman attend a Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB) investigative listening to on the January 29 mid-air collision of an Military Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter and American Airways flight 5342 over the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
“We will concentrate on [air traffic control], so air site visitors management and coaching, steerage, procedures, what was happening within the air that evening, and once more, that’s inside FAA’s purview,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy instructed reporters on Tuesday.
The NTSB can even talk about collision avoidance programs on plane in addition to any security knowledge that was obtainable and unavailable and the way security administration programs will be carried out and improved.
Witnesses who’re testifying on the hearings embody personnel from the Military, American Airways and the FAA.
On the eve of the investigative hearings, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz launched laws known as “The Rotor Act,” which might require all plane, together with navy, to transmit ADSB location when flying — a system that enables plane to transmit its location to different plane in addition to to air site visitors controllers. All plane flying above 18,000 ft are required to have ADSB, however sure plane, together with navy plane, are exempt from transmitting ADSB location for safety causes.
Kinfolk of victims attend a Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB) investigative listening to on the January 29 mid-air collision of an Military Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter and American Airways flight 5342 over the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated the NTSB advisable to the FAA to require ADSB on all plane almost 20 years in the past.
“ADSB, and I am unable to stress this sufficient, is a game-changer, a game-changer in terms of security and can present, as we stated in 2008 speedy and substantial contribution to security. This can save lives. This laws will save lives,” Homendy stated.
In its preliminary report, the NTSB stated there isn’t a indication the Black Hawk crew might inform it was on a collision course with Flight 5342, which was touchdown on the similar time the helicopter was passing the top of the runway.
A Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB) investigative listening to on the January 29 mid-air collision of an Military Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter and American Airways flight 5342 over the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, takes place at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 30, 2025.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
The helicopter crew might need had unhealthy info from their altimeter, which measures peak, because the pilots had differing altitudes within the seconds earlier than the crash, the NTSB stated in its preliminary report in February.
“We’re the potential for there could also be unhealthy knowledge,” Homendy stated on the time.
The crew of the helicopter won’t have heard a transmission from the tower that instructed them to go behind the airliner as a result of the pilot might have keyed her radio on the similar second and stepped on the transmission from ATC, the NTSB preliminary report findings confirmed.
One helicopter pilot thought they have been at 400 ft and the opposite thought they have been at 300 ft. The NTSB stated it was not ready to say precisely how excessive the helicopter was at influence.
