WASHINGTON: The airspace around Washington, D.C., is congested and complex — a combination aviation experts have long worried could lead to catastrophe.
Those fears materialized Wednesday night when an American Airlines plane collided with a military helicopter, taking the lives of 67 people, including three soldiers and more than a dozen figure skaters.
Even in peak flying conditions, experts said, the airspace around Reagan Washington National Airport can challenge the most experienced pilots, who must navigate hundreds of other commercial planes, military aircraft and restricted areas around sensitive sites.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen,” said Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain and chief executive officer of Aero Consulting Experts. “Those of us who have been around a long time have been yelling into a vacuum that something like this would happen because our systems are stretched to extremes.”
There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas. Investigators have already begun examining every aspect of the crash, including questions about why the Army Black Hawk helicopter was 100 feet above its permitted altitude and whether the air traffic control tower was properly staffed. A Federal Aviation Administration report obtained by The Associated Press described staffing levels as “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”

As authorities piece together the nation’s deadliest US airline crash since 2001, the tragedy has raised new concerns about the specific dangers at Reagan National, which has seen a series of near-misses in recent years. Experts and some lawmakers said they are concerned that the airspace is about to get more congested in the wake of Congress’ decision last year to ease restrictions that had limited the airport to nonstop flights within 1,250 miles (2,012 kilometers) of Washington, with few exceptions.
Lawmakers enabled airlines to launch new routes to destinations like Seattle and San Francisco. The plan fueled intense debate about congestion versus convenience, with some legislators heralding new flights to their home states while others warned of potential tragedy. The flight that crashed Wednesday was not part of the expansion. It was added by American Airlines in January of last year amid a push by Kansas lawmakers for more service between Reagan National and Wichita.
Airliners and helicopters in close proximity
Commercial aircraft flying in and out of Reagan National have long had to contend with military helicopters traversing the same airspace within at-times startling proximity.
“Even if everybody is doing what they’re supposed to be doing, you’ve only got a few hundred feet separation between aircraft coming in to land and the many helicopters along that route,” said Jim Brauchle, a former US Air Force navigator and aviation attorney. “It doesn’t leave a whole lot margin of error.”

Pilots have long warned of a “nightmare scenario” near the airport with commercial jetliners and military helicopters crossing paths, especially at night when the bright lights of the city can make seeing oncoming aircraft more difficult.
Retired US Army National Guard pilot Darrell Feller said the deadly collision reminded him of a near-miss he experienced a decade ago when he was flying a military helicopter south along the Potomac River near Reagan National.
An air traffic controller advised him to be on the lookout for a jetliner landing on Runway 3-3, an approach that requires planes to fly directly over the route used by military and law enforcement helicopters transiting the nation’s capital.
Not always easy to spot airliners
Feller was unable to pick out the oncoming jetliner against the lights of the city and cars on a nearby bridge. He immediately descended, skimming just 50 feet over the water to ensure the descending jetliner would pass over him.
“I could not see him. I lost him in the city lights,” Feller, who retired from the Army in 2014, recounted Thursday. “It did scare me.”
Feller’s experience was eerily similar to what experts said may have happed with the crew of the Army helicopter Wednesday shortly before 9 p.m. as they flew south along the Potomac and collided with an American Airlines Flight 5342 landing at Runway 3-3.
As the American Airlines jet approached the airport, air traffic controllers asked its pilots if they could land on Runway 3-3 rather than the longer — and busier — north-south runway. The jet’s pilots altered their approach, heading over the east bank of the Potomac before heading back over the river to land on 3-3.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the Army helicopter if it had the American Airlines plane in sight, and the military pilot responded that he did. The controller then instructed the Black Hawk to pass behind the jet. Seconds after that last transmission, the two aircraft collided in a fireball.

Feller, who served as an instructor pilot for the D.C. National Guard, said he had several rules for new pilots to avoid such collisions. He warned them to stay below the mandated 200-foot ceiling for helicopters. And he urged them to be on guard for planes landing on 3-3 because they could be difficult to spot.
Those planes’ “landing lights are not pointed directly at you,” Feller said, adding that those lights also get “mixed up with ground lights, with cars.”
Not the first such deadly crash
Wednesday’s crash was reminiscent of a deadly collision in 1949, when Washington’s airspace was considerably less crowded. A passenger plane on final approach to what is now Reagan Airport collided with a military plane, plunging both aircraft to the Potomac River and killing 55 people. At the time, it was the deadliest air crash in the US.

Jack Schonely, a retired Los Angeles Police Department helicopter pilot, said he’s been a passenger on helicopter rides through D.C. and was always struck by how complicated it seems for the pilots.
“You’ve got two large airports. You’ve got multiple restricted areas. You’ve got altitude restrictions. Routine restrictions, and a lot of air traffic,” he said. “There’s a lot going on in a tight area.”
Robert Clifford, an aviation attorney, said the US government should temporarily halt military helicopter flights in the airspace used by commercial airlines near Reagan National.
“I can’t get over how stunningly clear it is that this was a preventable crash and this should never, ever have occurred,” Clifford said. “There have been discussions for some time about the congestion associated with that and the potential for disaster. And we saw it come home last night.”
 

WASHINGTON: Conspiracy theories about vaccines. Secret meetings with dictators. An enemies list.
President Donald Trump’ s most controversial Cabinet nominees — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel — flooded the zone Thursday in back-to-back-to-back confirmation hearings that were like nothing the Senate has seen in modern memory.
The onslaught of claims, promises and testy exchanges did not occur in a political vacuum. The whirlwind day — Day 10 of the new White House — all unfolded as Trump himself was ranting about how diversity hiring caused the tragic airplane-and-helicopter crash outside Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport.
And it capped a tumultuous week after the White House abruptly halted federal funding for programs Americans rely on nationwide, under guidance from Trump’s budget pick Russ Vought, only to reverse course amid a public revolt.
“The American people did not vote for this kind of senseless chaos,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, earlier.
It was all challenging even the most loyal Republicans who are being asked to confirm Trump’s Cabinet or face recriminations from an army of online foot-soldiers aggressively promoting the White House agenda. A majority vote, in the Senate which is led by Republicans 53-57, is needed for confirmation, leaving little room for dissent.
Here are some takeaways from the day:
Tulsi Gabbard defends her loyalty — and makes some inroads
Gabbard is seen as the most endangered of Trump’s picks, potentially lacking the votes even from Trump’s party for confirmation for Director of National Intelligence. But her hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee offered a roadmap toward confirmation.
It opened with the chairman, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, swatting back claims that Gabbard is a foreign “asset,” undercover for some other nation, presumably Russia. He said he reviewed some 300 pages of multiple FBI background checks and she’s “clean as a whistle.”
But Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel, questioned whether she could build the trust needed, at home and abroad, to do the job.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, defended her loyalty to the US She dismissed GOP Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, when he asked whether Russia would “get a pass” from her.
“Senator, I’m offended by the question,” Gabbard responded.
Pressed on her secret 2017 trip to meet with then-Syrian President Bashir Assad, who has since been toppled by rebels and fled to Russia, she defended her work as diplomacy.
Gabbard may have made some inroads with one potentially skeptical Republican. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, asked whether Gabbard would recommend a pardon for Edward Snowden. The former government contractor was charged with espionage after leaking a trove of sensitive intelligence material, and fled to residency in Russia.
Gabbard, who has called Snowden a brave whistleblower, said it would not be her responsibility to “advocate for any actions related to Snowden.”
Picking up one notable endorsement, Gabbard was introduced by one of the Senate’s more influential voices on intelligence matters, Richard Burr, the retired Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pressed again on vaccine safety
Kennedy faced a second day of grilling to become Health and Human Services secretary, this time at the Senate Health committee, as senators probed his past views against vaccines and whether he would ban the abortion drug mifepristone.
But what skeptical Democratic senators have been driving at is whether Kennedy is trustworthy — if he holds fast to his past views or has shifted to new ones — echoing concerns raised by his cousin Caroline Kennedy that he is a charismatic “predator” hungry for power.
“You’ve spent your entire career undermining America’s vaccine program,” said Sen. Chris Murphy D-Connecticut “It just isn’t believable that when you become secretary you are going to become consistent with science.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, took the conversation in a different direction reading Kennedy’s comments about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which he said in a social media post: “It’s hard to tell what is conspiracy and what isn’t.”
“Wow,” Kaine said.
Kennedy responded that his father, the late Robert F. Kennedy, told him that people in positions of power do lie.
But Kennedy’s longtime advocacy in the anti-vaccine community continued to dominate his hearings.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., choked back tears when she told Kennedy that his work caused grave harm by relitigating what is already “settled science” — rather than helping the country advance toward new treatments and answers in health care.
But Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, immediately shifted the mood saying his own sons are fans of the nominee and he thanked Kennedy for “bringing the light” particularly to a younger generation interested in his alternative views.
Pressed on whether he would ban the abortion drug mifepristone, Kennedy said it’s up to Trump.
“I will implement his policy.”
A combative Kash Patel spars with senators over his past
Kash Patel emerged as perhaps the most combative nominee in a testy hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee as the nominee to lead the FBI.
Confronted with his own past words, writings and public comments, Patel, a former Capitol Hill staffer turned Trump enthusiast, protested repeatedly that his views were being taken out of context as “unfair” smears.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, read aloud Patel’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and another about his published “enemies list” that includes former Trump officials who have been critical of the president.
“’We’re going to come after you,’” she read him saying.
Patel dismissed her citations as “partial statement” and “false.”
Klobuchar, exasperated, told senators: “It’s his own words.”
Patel has stood by Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol and produced a version of the national anthem featuring Trump and the so-called J6 choir of defendants as a fundraiser. The president played the song opening his campaign rallies.
During one jarring moment, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., asked Patel to turn around and look at the US Capitol Police officers protecting the hearing room.
“Tell them you’re proud of what you did. Tell them you’re proud that you raised money off of people that assaulted their colleagues, that pepper sprayed them, that beat them with poles,” Schiff said.
Patel fired back: “That’s an abject lie, you know it. I never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement.”
Patel said he did not endorse Trump’s sweeping pardon of supporters, including violent rioters, charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said.
In another Cabinet development, Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee advanced Trump’s budget nominee Russ Vought toward confirmation after Democrats boycotted the meeting in protest.
Vought was an architect of Project 2025 and influential in the White House memo to free federal funding this week, which sparked panic in communities across the country. Advocacy organizations challenged the freeze in court, and the White House quickly rescinded it, for now.