Emergency response items search the crash website of the American Airways airplane on the Potomac River after the airplane crashed on strategy to Reagan Nationwide Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Pictures
Rescuers have been nonetheless retrieving our bodies out of the frigid Potomac River on Thursday morning, however the deadliest industrial air catastrophe within the U.S. since 2001 is bringing long-brewing issues over congested U.S. airspace right into a full-blown disaster.
Simply earlier than 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, an American Airways regional jetliner collided with a army helicopter close to Washington D.C.’s Reagan Nationwide Airport. There have been no survivors on both the Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet that carried 60 passengers and 4 crew members or on the Military Black Hawk helicopter that was carrying three, officers stated.
A sequence of shut calls at airports lately has raised alarms amongst airways, regulators and lawmakers. It’s not instantly clear what led to the lethal collision on Wednesday. A full investigation might take months if not longer than a yr. Officers on Thursday didn’t fault air visitors for the lethal crash.
In one of many current incidents that raised issues, a JetBlue Airways airplane that was beginning its takeoff roll at Reagan Nationwide in April got here inside a couple of hundred ft of Southwest Airways flight, which was advised to cross the runway.
Regardless of these shut calls, there has not been a serious deadly industrial airplane crash on U.S. soil since February 2009. Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest since November 2001.
“The system is as protected because it has ever been,” Southwest Airways CEO Bob Jordan stated in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Avenue” on Thursday morning.
Airline executives have pushed consecutive administrations to modernize air visitors management and rent extra staffers to assist alleviate congestion in a few of the busiest corridors in america. Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport’s foremost runway is the busiest within the U.S., in line with the realm’s airport authority.
“The system has been in want of modernization for actually many years now,” Jordan stated. “You’ve got obtained gear that goes again to the Nineteen Sixties, and modernizing the gear really permits for higher administration of the airspace, extra throughput, so extra effectivity.”