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A heart-wrenching simulation put viewers in the pilots’ seats during the horrifying moments an American Airlines passenger plane and an Army Blackhawk helicopter collided over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last year.
Distraught attendees at the National Transportation Safety Board’s public hearing on the Jan. 29, 2025 crash – which killed 67 people – were seen leaving in tears as the animated footage played, broadcasting the cockpit-view perspectives of the deadliest US aviation disaster in over a decade.
As the helicopter pilot peered through night vision goggles over the nation’s capital – passing the Washington Monument and other landmarks illuminated in the night sky – the passenger plane suddenly appeared as just a white spec in the distance.
While the aircraft draw terrifyingly closer to one another, Reagan National’s air traffic controller is heard in radio communications requesting a “visual separation” between the two, according to the footage.
Less than 15 seconds later, however, the jet suddenly appears in full view from the left side of the helicopter’s windshield, and the video ends with a spine-chilling white flash.
The simulated view from the right seat of the American Airlines plane shows the aircraft heading for the brightly-lit landing strip on Reagan National’s runway when the helicopter, with its blinking red lights barely visible, appears suddenly in the lower right-hand corner of the windshield.
In both videos, the air traffic controller fails to tell the pilots they are heading right toward one another.
A simulation of the air traffic control tower shows the helicopter moving at a much higher rate of speed than the plane, before the two collide just seconds before 8:48 p.m. – which is depicted by the two animated circles representing each aircraft becoming one.
The plane, carrying 64 people, and helicopter, with three crew members on board, plummeted into the icy Potomac River below.
Many attendees – including family members of the victims – showed up wearing black T-shirts bearing the names of those killed during the tragic crash to the NTSB hearing Tuesday, when it was revealed that repeated lapses in federal oversight led to the disaster.
“I’m sorry for you, as these pages of these reports are written in your family members’ blood,” NTSB board member Todd Inman told the audience.
“I’m sorry that we have to be here.”
The Federal Aviation Administration repeatedly rejected proposed safety measures before the tragic crash – and failed to even properly test the air traffic controllers for drugs and alcohol afterwards, it was revealed at the hearing.
Other revelations included that a Reagan National controller reported that he was “a little overwhelmed” by heavy air traffic in the minutes leading up to the collision, and that none of the controllers involved had ever received Department of Transportation-mandated “Threat and Error Management Training.”
Last week, the FAA announced that temporary changes made after the crash to ensure helicopters and planes would no longer share the same airspace around the nation’s capital were made permanent.
English (US)