No Survivors Left in Wake of Tragic Midair Collision
Rachel Smith | News Editor
(Photo Courtesy of @harryjsisson on X)
67 lives were claimed on Wednesday evening after an American Airlines flight and a US Army Blackhawk helicopter collided over the Potomac River in Washington, DC. A search and rescue team of over 300 first responders launched a recovery mission on Thursday morning, unfortunately their efforts revealed the deaths of 64 passengers on the commercial flight and the three soldiers aboard the helicopter. Twenty-eight bodies have since been recovered but EMS Chief John A. Donnelly stated that, “at this point, we don’t believe there are survivors from this accident.” This accident has since become the deadliest aviation disaster in the US since 2001.
A preliminary FAA internal report stated that the air traffic controller on duty was managing incoming and departing flights from runways while also handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity, a task meant for two people, not one. This statement comes in the wake of reported years of understaffing, having the air traffic control tower functioning at a third below recommended staff levels. Despite this, FAA guidelines do permit for the position to be combined, but this action is “not normal” for the amount of air traffic for the time of day.
The U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, stated that the collision “shouldn’t have happened,” as there was reportedly no communication lapse, and both aircrafts were adhering to standard flight patterns. Duffy then followed his statement with, “we are going to take responsibility at the Department of Transportation and the FAA to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by President Trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again…”
The crew flying the Blackhawk was “very experienced” and were not new to the prevalent air congestion over D.C.. The Chief of staff for Army aviation, Jonathan Koziol, stated, “Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night…even the crew chief in the area has been in the unit for a very long time, very familiar with the area, very familiar with the routing structure.”
The NTSB has yet to recover the “black boxes,” formally known as flight data recorders, from either aircraft. However, J. Todd Inman, a board member of the agency, stated “we will probably have more than one black box, so to speak. It’s our understanding that the Sikorsky helicopter is equipped with some form of recording device, and those will be read either by the DOD or by us. We have a good starting relationship with them, and we’ve already made agreements in order to be able to do that.”
Among the deceased were several members from the Skating Club of Boston, including athletes Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, their parents, and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, both of whom were the 1994 world champions in the sport. They were returning from the US figure skating development camp, following last week’s US ice skating championship. US Figure Skating released a statement after the tragedy stating, “We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts.” The international Skating Union added that the global skating community was “deeply shocked by the tragic accident.”
This is an ongoing investigation. Please check back at Flyer News for further updates.