Federal lawmakers react to crash at Ronald Reagan

By
Katherine Zehnder
-

At approximately 9 pm on Wednesday, a mid-air collision occurred between a Blackhawk Helicopter and a passenger jet at Ronald Reagan International Airport (DCA) in Washington, DC. The passenger jet was American Eagle No 5342, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, coming in from Wichita, Kansas.

Federal lawmakers representing North Carolina have reacted to the tragic incident. 

“Please join me in praying for the families, loved ones, and all who were involved in the collision of a commercial jet and military helicopter near Reagan National Airport,” said Sen. Ted Budd, R-NC, in an X post. 

Department of Defense (DOD) officials told CBS News that three soldiers were aboard the US Army’s Sikorsky H-60. 

American Eagle and PSA Airlines are subsidiaries of American Airlines.

“The aircraft was operated by PSA Airlines, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines,” said Robert Isom, CEO of American Airlines, in a statement. “We are actively working with local, state, and federal authorities on emergency response efforts, and the American Airlines Care Team has been activated to assist our passengers and their families. We are cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board in its’ investigation, and we will continue to provide all the information we can.” 

Newly confirmed US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, put out a statement on X.

District of Columbia Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly confirmed that there no survivors. Thursday morning, Donnelly indicated that efforts had shifted from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. As of Thursday morning, 27 bodies were recovered from the plane and one from the helicopter.

According to Joint Task Force-National Capitol Region media chief Heather Chairez, the helicopter that was a part of the collision was on a training flight and belonged to B Company, 12th Battalion from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. 

“We had a situation where you had a helicopter that had the ability to stop,” said President Trump during a press conference Thursday. “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, obviously. It did somewhat the opposite of what it was told, we don’t know that that would have been the difference because the timing was so tight. There was so little time to think, but what you did have is you had vision. The helicopter had vision of the plane, and you had perfect vision of it all the way from the Kennedy Center where the tape was taken.” 

All flights in and out of  DCA were temporarily halted Wednesday evening after the incident occurred. 

DCA resumed flight operations at 11 am Thursday morning.

“From the moment we found out about this, we were in contact with the White House trying to determine exactly what happened,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during Thursday’s press conference. “No excuses, we are going to get to the bottom of this…The military does dangerous things; it does routine things on a regular basis. Tragically, last night, a mistake was made. I think the President is right, there was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DOD and army level. Army CID is on the ground investigating top-tier aviation assets inside the DOD are investigating, sir, to get to the bottom of it so that it does not happen again because it’s absolutely unacceptable.”  

The post Federal lawmakers react to crash at Ronald Reagan first appeared on Carolina Journal.

 

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