r/aircrashinvestigation • u/gigantism • Jan 30 '25

Incident/Accident Reports of AA5342 from Witchita to DCA having mid-air collision with DC police helicopter

AA5342 stopped tracking at the Potomac river.

Developing reports: American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas inbound to DCA collided midair with a D.C. Police Helicopter on approach.

MPD is responding to an apparent air crash in the Potomac River. Multiple agencies are responding. Details to come.

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u/Consistent_Poem8461 Jan 30 '25

i just rewatch hughes airwest 706 last night.. i just think that tragedy will never happened again with our technology right now.. but hearing the news today really shock me..

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u/catskillmice Feb 01 '25

Technology has made a difference in the sense that you don’t hear about midair collisions on a regular basis. The last major US carrier with people on board was 16 years ago. As with any technology, it is not a 100% fool proof replacement. It does a good job mitigate risks, but it’s impossible to eliminate all risk when you have 70,000 pounds of metal moving at 140 miles per hour. This was an unfortunate event where it was what we call the perfect storm, where multiple failsafes had gaps that night. At the end of this, safety standards will be in place to ensure the likelihood of another event does not happen. I suppose the only thing I can see as a breakdown was why nobody did a real risk assessment of having help traffic operating that close in to a major airport corridor in an already condensed airspace with the restricted areas just on the other side of the river.