WASHINGTON (AP) — A daylong hearing on Tuesday should make clear what factors played the biggest role in causing last January's midair collision near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people, and the National Transportation Safety Board will recommend what should be done to prevent similar tragedies.
Everyone aboard an American Airlines jet flying from Wichita, Kansas, and an Army Black Hawk helicopter died when the two aircraft ran into each other and plummeted into the icy Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025. It was the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001.
The Federal Aviation Administration made a number of changes shortly after the crash to ensure that helicopters and planes no longer share the same crowded airspace around the nation's capital, and last week it made those changes permanent. But the NTSB will recommend additional action, and the families of the victims have said they hope that leads to meaningful changes.
“I hope that we see a clear path through the recommendations they offer to ensure that this never happens again,” said Rachel Feres, who lost her cousin Peter Livingston and his wife and two young daughters in the crash. “That nobody else has to wake up to hear that an entire branch of their family tree is gone or their wife is gone or the child is gone. That’s what I hope coming out of this. I hope we have clarity and urgency.”
Whether that happens will depend on how Congress, the Army and the Trump administration respond after the hearing. But the victims' families say they will keep the pressure on officials to act.
Young Alydia and Everly Livingston were among 28 members of the figure skating community who died in the crash. Many of them had been in Wichita for a national skating competition and development camp.
The NTSB has already spelled out many of the key factors that contributed to the crash and detailed what happened that night. That includes a poorly designed helicopter route past Reagan Airport, the fact that the Black Hawk was flying 78 feet (23.7 meters) higher than it should have been, the warnings that the FAA ignored in the years beforehand and the Army’s move to turn off a key system that would have broadcast the helicopter’s location more clearly.
A number of other high-profile crashes and close calls followed the D.C. collision last year and worried the flying public. But NTSB statistics show that the total number of crashes last year was actually the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 with 1,405 crashes nationwide.
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Fields reported from Washington. Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska and White reported from Detroit. AP Airlines writer Rio Yamat contributed from Las Vegas.
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