Army chopper didn't respond to air traffic control before crash with Wichita flight

Air traffic control received no response from a military Black Hawk helicopter seconds before it collided with an American Airlines flight going from Wichita to Washington, D.C. Wednesday evening.

As American Airlines flight 5342 was set to land at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, air traffic control asked the helicopter pilots whether they saw the plane.

“PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight,” the controller asked, referring to the helicopter’s call sign and the plane, a CRJ 700 jet. The tower received no response.

The controller made another attempt: “PAT25, pass behind this CRJ.”

The helicopter collided with the flight seconds later in a fiery crash believed to be the worst U.S. commercial aviation disaster in recent history. Both aircraft landed in the Potomac River, killing 67 people. There were no survivors. As responders assess the damage, publicly available audio from air traffic control is already drawing scrutiny from top U.S. officials.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declined to say much about the audio during a briefing Thursday morning. However, Duffy, an appointee of President Donald Trump, painted communication between the tower and the helicopter as standard.

“But I will say this, there was, there was communication,” Duffy said. “It was standard communication. So there was not a breakdown if that’s your question, in the communication between the military helicopter and the American Airlines flight.”

The audio, from LiveATC.net, an online source for in-flight recordings, recorded the dramatic moments in the lead up and aftermath of the crash. The audio reveals communications between air traffic controllers and a bevy of aircraft as well as the final attempt to connect with the military helicopter.

When asked about the helicopter’s flight path, Duffy said those who live in the D.C. area regularly see military helicopters fly up and down the Potomac River.

“It’s a standard path that they fly,” Duffy said. “They’re used to aircraft landing at DCA and there’s a procedure in place because this happens every day. Something went wrong here.”

The crash came after years of concerns from top lawmakers about overcrowding and close calls at DCA. During the briefing on Thursday, Democratic U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine from Virginia both said they have raised alarms in the past.

“We’ve got a very busy airspace,” Warner said, adding that the senators would ask questions at the appropriate time. “We’re trying to figure out what happened. There’ll be time for those discussions.”

Senators have been “pretty plain about our concerns, but it isn’t a good time to speculate,” Kaine said. “Right now, we have faith that the (National Transportation Safety Board) will provide the answers about this.”

While the lawmakers cautioned against speculation, the audio immediately drew scrutiny from Trump, who took to social media Wednesday night to question the air traffic control tower.

“Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane,” Trump wrote, on his social media platform Truth Social. “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

Duffy on Thursday did not address Trump’s specific concern, but reiterated that he felt the crash was preventable.

Trump on Thursday continued pointing fingers about the cause of the crash. The Republican president blamed the Democratic Party as well as initiatives intended to promote diversity in the Federal Aviation Administration. He then pointed to the pilot of the helicopter.

“We had a helicopter that had the ability to stop,” Trump said Thursday. “I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down. It had the ability to turn. And the turn it made was not the correct turn.”

‘I just saw a fireball.’

In addition to the communication attempt with the helicopter, publicly-available audio also reveals the chaotic scene in the aftermath of the crash as air traffic controllers began redirecting flights.

Shortly after the helicopter and plane collided, one aircraft called into the tower: “Tower did you see that?”

At one point, the audio between controllers and other aircraft indicates that at least one other aircraft pilot witnessed the crash, which occurred as the flight from Wichita was approaching Runway 33 at DCA.

“I don’t know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach in the three-three,” the controller said. “We’re going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future. If you want to go back to the gate, I suggest you guys coordinate with the company.”

The aircraft pilot responded: “Talking to them right now. Yeah, we witnessed the whole thing.”

As controllers in the tower were communicating with pilots, separate audio from controllers in charge of managing aircraft on the ground shows others also witnessed the crash. In one interaction, one person, likely a controller, appears to inform emergency responders about the incident.

“Fire command, the accident happened in the river. Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river east of the approach into runway three-three,” the person said.

The person on the other line, referred to as “fire command,” then asked whether the airfield and runways were closed.

“Yes, all runways are closed,” the other person responded. “Nobody’s landing, no one’s moving at all.”

Later on in the audio, that person went on to further describe the dramatic scene she witnessed.

“I just saw a fireball, and then it was just gone,” she said. “So I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river, but it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.”

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed reporting.

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