A new report has unveiled the failings that led to a collision between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet over Washington DC that ended with all 67 passengers dead at the bottom of the Potomac River.
The tragic incident unfolded on the night of January 29 when Army Black Hawk pilot Capt. Rebecca Lobach was undergoing an annual flight evaluation overseen by her co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Lloyd Eaves.
Her training sortie was conducted in one of the world’s most tightly packed airspaces above the US capital, a stone’s throw away from Ronald Reagan National Airport.
Unsurprisingly, air traffic control (ATC) informed Lobach and the Black Hawk crew that a passenger jet was nearby.
That jet was American Airlines flight 5342, a CRJ700 Bombardier flying from Wichita, Kansas, that was carrying 60 passengers and four crew.
Both Lobach and Eaves acknowledged the message before requesting permission to fly by ‘visual separation’ – a practice that allows aircraft to avoid collisions based on their own observations instead of following instructions from the ATC tower.
This suggests Lobach had spotted the plane herself, and her request was granted – but the Black Hawk helicopter continued to stray dangerously close to the flight path of the American Airlines jet which was descending from a higher altitude.
Just 15 seconds before colliding with the commercial aeroplane, ATC instructed Lobach to make a left turn after issuing a command to ‘pass behind’ the oncoming aircraft.
The Black Hawk did not change course.
Then, just a few seconds before impact, co-pilot Eaves turned to Lobach in the cockpit and reiterated the instruction from air traffic control.
His order fell on deaf ears, and at 8:47.59 pm ET, the night sky above Washington DC was briefly illuminated by the fireball that erupted as the two aircraft collided.
Investigators now believe the Black Hawk crew did not hear the word 'circling' because they might have been pressing the microphone key to talk at the same time the crucial term came through, according to the report. (Pictured: Captain Lobach)
Surveillance footage taken from inside the airport captured the moment the two planes collided in midair
Though it remains unclear why Lobach defied orders, Aviation experts predict she might have been 'blindsided' that the American Airlines flight was 'circling' Runway 33 that night
This image provided by the US Army shows Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Lloyd Eaves, 39, who was overseeing Captain Lobach's flight above DC when the crash occurred
The pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Airlines passenger airplane did not comply with directions to change course seconds before the fatal incident. (Pictured: Emergency crews rush to the scene after the crash)
Investigators may never know exactly why Lobach did not move to avoid the passenger jet.
There is no indication that Lobach suffered a medical emergency at the time of the crash and it is clear that the procedures for flying under 'visual separation' were not properly observed.
But an investigation by the New York Times revealed that communication failings likely contributed to the horrific crash.
'Multiple layers of safety precautions failed that night,' Katie Thomson, the Federal Aviation Administration's deputy administrator under the Biden administration, told the NYT.
Some of the radio instructions issued by ATC were reportedly 'stepped on' - meaning that they cut out when the helicopter crew pressed a microphone to speak and meant that the pilots may not have received important information.
'If the key is depressed, the pilot can speak but not hear incoming communications,' the report said.
The American Airlines flight was 'circling' its runway before coming into land that night. It was also instructed to land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National, while previous flights had landed on another runway.
Investigators now believe the Black Hawk crew did not hear the word 'circling' because they might have been pressing the microphone key to talk at the same time the crucial term came through.
They may also not have expected the American Airlines flight to adjust its course to land on a different runway.
National Transportation Safety Board chairperson Jennifer Homendy also confirmed to the NYT that another key instruction issued by ATC that told the Black Hawk to 'pass behind' the oncoming aircraft was stepped on.
'At 8:47:42 - or 17 seconds before impact - a radio transmission from the tower was audible on both CVRs (cockpit voice recorders) directing the Black Hawk to pass behind the CRJ,' Homendy told reporters.
'CVR data from the Black Hawk indicated that the portion of the transmission that stated 'pass behind the' may not have been received by the Black Hawk crew.'
Meanwhile, technology on the Black Hawk that would have allowed controllers to better track the helicopter was turned off.
Although the additional safeguard went unused as part of army protocol, experts who spoke to the NYT said this could have helped ATC prevent the crash.
On the night of January 29, Army Black Hawk pilot Capt. Rebecca Lobach (pictured on January 4, 2025) was conducting an annual flight evaluation with her co-pilot Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, who was serving as her flight instructor
The plane was being operated as an American Eagle Flight by PSA Airlines for its parent carrier American Airlines
Emergency response units assess airplane wreckage in the Potomac River
Lobach, Eaves and another crewmember aboard the Black Hawk were killed along with all 64 passengers and crew aboard the American Airlines flight when the aircraft collided plunged into the murky waters of the Potomac.
The passenger plane, which recorded its altitude at 313 feet two seconds before the collision, was piloted by 34-year-old Jonathan Campos, whose relatives said had dreamed of flying since he was three.
The jet's passengers ranged from a group of hunters to students and parents from northern Virginia schools to members of the Skating Club of Boston.
They were returning from a development camp for elite junior skaters that followed the 2025 US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
The collision constituted the first fatal crash involving a US commercial airline since 2009, when 50 people died in Buffalo, New York, following a crash of a Bombardier DHC-C propeller aircraft.
A recording of air traffic control communications revealed the shocked reactions of controllers as they witnessed the crash unfold in real time.
'Oh, oh my god! Tower, did you see that?' one worker is heard exclaiming.
'Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three,' one of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio from around the time of the crash.
'I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We're going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future,' another controller remarked.
'Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river,' a third air traffic controller can be heard saying.
'It was probably out in the middle of the river,' the controller said.
'I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.'
DC mobilised a huge rescue effort in the hours following the crash.
Some 300 first responders were on scene within minutes, deploying in a fleet of inflatable rescue boats launched into the Potomac River from a point along the George Washington Parkway, just north of the airport.
Other first responders set up light towers from the shore to illuminate the area near the collision site.
At least a half-dozen boats were scanning the water using searchlights overnight as images showed vessels grouped around a partly submerged wing and what appeared to be the mangled wreckage of the plane's fuselage.
But no survivors were found.