New Delhi:

Days after a passenger jet and military helicopter collided in Washington DC, killing all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, a new report has revealed that air traffic facilities in the US are reeling under severe staff shortages.

Over 90 per cent of the United States’ 313 air traffic control facilities are operating below the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) recommended staffing levels, The New York Times has reported.

As of January, 285 facilities, including traffic control towers and other locations, were below staffing thresholds set by the FAA and the controllers’ union. Staffing at 73 of these facilities is so low that at least a quarter of the workforce is absent.

According to a CBS News report, the matter came under scrutiny after an American Airlines flight and a Black Hawk Army chopper collided near Reagan National Airport. At the time of the incident, only one air traffic control worker was managing the helicopters and some planes from the Reagan National Airport tower, a task that usually requires two individuals.

The US air travel system remains one of the safest in the world, but the ongoing staff shortages and underinvestment in safety measures have resulted in an alarming number of close calls.

The shortfall is particularly significant in the New York area, where two critical facilities on Long Island operate with approximately 40% of the posts unfilled. These facilities manage air traffic for some of the busiest airports in the US which include Newark, JFK and LaGuardia, which handled 1.2 million flights last year, as per the data from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration projections, efforts to hire and train more controllers have already begun but are expected to fall short of staffing demands. Despite extensive training, around three-quarters of facilities will stay below recommended staffing levels.

Improving the ranks will take time as training a new air traffic controller can take over four years at certain facilities and nearly 16 months at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, The New York Times further mentioned.

About 2 per cent of the towers fulfilled the Collaborative Resource Working Group’s 2024 staffing targets for fully trained air traffic controllers, according to CBS News. According to the analysis of 2023 staffing data for nearly 200 airport towers, around 8 per cent met the objective, even after accounting for hundreds of air traffic controllers still in training.

Washington:

The 28-year-old pilot of the American Airlines passenger plane, which collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday, was looking forward to marrying his fiancée this year, his father said. Sam Lilley was the first officer on American Airlines Flight 5342.

In an emotional Facebook post, Sam’s father, Timothy Lilley, said he felt proud when his son became a pilot but “now it hurts so bad I can’t even cry myself to sleep.” 

“I know I’ll see him again, but my heart is breaking. He was thriving in his career and personal life,” he wrote.

Timothy, a former Army helicopter pilot himself, shared that Sam was engaged to marry in the fall. “It’s devastating to lose someone so loved,” he wrote.

At the time of the crash, Timothy was in New York for work. He described the moment he realised his son was flying when the crash occurred as the worst day of his life. He had a gut feeling something was wrong when Sam, who always checked in, failed to do so.

Speaking to Fox News, Timothy, who served as a helicopter pilot for 20 years, recalled flying in and out of the Pentagon during the 1990s. He explained, “If you’re flying over the Potomac River at night with night vision goggles, it’s extremely difficult to spot a plane. Without them, it’s slightly easier but still challenging.” He believes the commercial jet followed proper procedures, but the military helicopter made a tragic error.

The mid-air collision took place at around 8:47 pm EST, three miles from the White House and the US Capitol. The two aircraft crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport, killing all 67 people aboard, making it the deadliest US air crash since 2001.

Reports say that investigators have recovered the black boxes from the passenger plane as rescuers pulled bodies from the Potomac River

The American Airlines plane was flying to the US capital from Wichita, Kansas. It had onboard athletes and coaches from the elite figure skating world, including former Russian world pairs champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

Washington, United States:

Investigators on Thursday recovered the black boxes from a passenger plane whose mid-air collision with a military helicopter over Washington’s Potomac river killed 67 people, as rescuers pulled victims’ bodies from the freezing water.

US President Donald Trump launched a political attack blaming diversity and inclusion policies championed by his Democratic predecessors for causing the incident.

Trump’s politicization of the tragedy came as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it had recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary that smashed into an Army Black Hawk helicopter late Wednesday.

“The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation,” the agency said in a statement to AFP.

According to a New York Times report, staffing was thin in the control tower at Reagan National Airport, where the airliner was about to land when the collision occurred. 

One controller, rather than the usual two, was handling both plane and helicopter traffic, the Times quoted a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration report as saying.

A fireball erupted in the night sky and both aircraft tumbled into the icy Potomac, leaving rescue crews with the grim, difficult task of searching for bodies in the dark and cold.

Over 40 bodies had been recovered as of Thursday evening, according to US media reports.

Trump politicizes crash 

Trump, who took office 10 days ago, turned a press conference on the disaster into a platform for his crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI — a series of often decades-old measures meant to combat racism and sexism across the United States.

Accusing his Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama of having kept good employees out of the aviation agency in pursuit of DEI, he claimed: “They actually came out with a directive: ‘too white.’ And we want the people that are competent.”

The passenger plane was carrying 64 people and the Black Hawk had three aboard.

The collision — the first major crash in the United States since 2009 when 49 people were killed near Buffalo, New York — occurred as American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas came in to land.

Reagan National is a major airport located a short distance from downtown Washington, the White House and the Pentagon. The airspace is extremely busy, with civilian and military aircraft a constant presence.

Trump opened his White House press conference by speaking of the nation’s anguish.

However, he then launched into an extended broadside against DEI, aiming directly at Biden’s openly gay transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“He’s run it right into the ground with his diversity,” Trump said.

The message was hammered home as Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, and new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, took turns at the podium to repeat — without evidence — the hard-right theory that diversity measures keep capable Americans out of responsible jobs.

Asked again by reporters whether he was blaming workplace diversity for the crash, Trump answered: “It could have been.”

Buttigieg responded on X, calling Trump “despicable.”

“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” he said.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy posted that Trump’s comments “blaming the FAA’s hiring of women and black people for the crash — was disgusting.”

“He’s in charge. This happened on his watch,” Murphy said.

Trump doubled down, however, later issuing an official memo directing the government to investigate “deterioration in hiring standards” under Biden and “replacement” of anyone unqualified.

Skaters among victims

Among those on the airliner were several US skaters and coaches, US Figure Skating said. Officials in Moscow also confirmed the presence of Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title.

Two Chinese citizens were also among the victims of the crash, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday in Beijing, citing the Chinese embassy.

The force of the collision soon made it clear that survivors were unlikely.

“I just saw a fireball and it was gone,” one air traffic controller was heard telling a colleague after communication with the helicopter was cut.

Transport officials said both aircraft were on standard flight patterns on a clear night with good visibility.

And Hegseth said the chopper had “a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A footage is going viral on social media platforms showing the air traffic control room screen, which appears to show the radar view of an American Airlines plane colliding with a US military helicopter on Wednesday.

The 49-second clip shows how the Army Black Hawk helicopter with three people on board – call sign PAT25 – crashed into the American Eagle Flight 5342, a small plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members.

#BREAKING: Shared to me anonymously shows the Playback from official Air Traffic Control radar

#Washington | #DC

Watch as exclusive playback, sent anonymously by @avgeekjake to Rawsalerst, reveals official Air Traffic Control radar footage displaying the Collision Alert. pic.twitter.com/JuFNYDkc3v

— Flight 5342 (@flight5342) January 30, 2025

They collided over Washington before crashing into the Potomac River. 

Authorities say they do not expect any survivors from the crash, which was caught on multiple cameras. Multi-agency operation is underway to recover 67 bodies from the river.

Webcam at the Kennedy Center caught an explosion mid-air across the Potomac. https://t.co/v75sxitpH6 pic.twitter.com/HInYdhBYs5

— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) January 30, 2025

The American Airlines plane, which was flying to the US capital from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying athletes and coaches from the elite figure skating world, including former Russian world pairs champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

The incident occurred at approximately 9:00 pm (ET) (0200 GMT) on Wednesday as the aircraft was making its final approach to Washington’s Reagan National Airport.

According to reports, the plane pilot has been identified as Sam Lilley, a 28-year-old with six years experience at American Airlines, and who was engaged to be married.

Air Traffic Controller Audio Captures Moments Before Washington Plane Crash

An Air traffic control audio also recorded the moments before and after the passenger jet crashed with the US Army helicopter.

Audio from LiveATC.net, a respected source for in-flight recording, captured the final communications between the three crew members of the chopper before it collided with the CRJ700 Bombardier jet.

“PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller said at 8:47 pm (ET) on Wednesday.

Seconds later, another aircraft called in to air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?” – apparently referring to the crash. 

An air traffic controller then redirected planes heading to runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport to go around.

“Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three,” one of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio from around the time of the crash.

Air Traffic Control gave the Army helo permission to pass *behind* the jet coming into DCA. It’s in the ATC recording here at 17:30 from @Aristos_Revengehttps://t.co/gIMRoz1nEt…

ATC (likely DCA tower) asks the Army helo if it “has CRJ in sight?” “Pass behind the CRJ” https://t.co/AMJMqv6Ser pic.twitter.com/n7g7UgqFoh

— NOVA Campaigns (@NoVA_Campaigns) January 30, 2025

“I don’t know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We’re going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future,” another controller said.

“Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river,” a third air traffic controller can be heard saying.

“It was probably out in the middle of the river,” the controller said. 

“I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit,” the controller added.

(With agency inputs)

The victims of a crash between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter included teen figure skaters returning from a national meet with their mothers and coaches, an Ohio college student coming from her grandfather’s funeral and a group of hunters headed back from a guided trip in Kansas.

They were among 60 travelers and four crew members on board the commercial flight late Wednesday (January 30, 2025) when it collided with a Black Hawk helicopter that was carrying three soldiers. Officials say there are no survivors.

At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the American Airlines regional jet late Wednesday while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, just across the river from Washington, officials said.

President Donald Trump told a White House news conference that no one survived.

“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital.

As the search for remains continued Thursday, communities grieved. Faith leaders held a vigil Thursday in the city council chambers.

“The only way we will get through this is together,” said the Rev. Pamela Hughes Mason of Wichita’s St. Paul AME Church.

American Airlines set up a hotline as well as centers in Washington and Wichita for people searching for information about family members who may have been aboard the downed flight. The hotline can be reached at 1-800 679 8215.

Here’s what we know about who was killed in Wednesday night’s crash:

Skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane were among those killed, according to Doug Zeghibe, CEO of the Skating Club of Boston. Their mothers, Jin Han and Christine Lane, as well as their coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were also killed.

Han and Lane, who was about 16, were returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

“We watched Jinna just grow up here from just a tiny little tyke into this amazingly mature 13-year-old,” he said. “A great performer, a great competitor, and off the ice, a great kid.”

Spencer Lane, who was from Barrington, Rhode Island, took part in his first professional show in December with Elin Schran’s company, Joy Skate Productions.

“He started to discover this connection with the audience and that joy that he was giving to other people through his gift,” Schran said.

In a statement, the Lane family recalled Christine Lane for both her singular talents and her dedication to parenting.

“Christine exuded creativity throughout her life, using her formal graphic design training as a jumping-off point for seemingly endless creative pursuits across areas such as photography, quilting, knitting, and more. She brought even greater passion to her role as a mother to Spencer and his brother Milo,” the family said.

Their coaches, Shishkova and Naumov, won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships in Chiba, Japan. The Russia-born pair also competed twice in the Olympics.

Skating organizations in Philadelphia and the Washington area also said some of their young athletes had been aboard the plane.

Several athletes on the flight had attended a development camp held after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships ended Sunday in Wichita, Kansas.

Wichita Skating Center manager Sean O’Reilly said the championships brought a “groundswell of positivity,” drawing enthusiastic parents and young athletes from across the U.S. He was “gutted” to learn some of those skaters had been killed.

In Virginia’s Loudoun County, a coach at a skating club was also identified as among the passengers, Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam confirmed. The club, Ashburn Ice House, said that its “figure skating community has been directly affected,” but did not give further details.

Cedarville University in Ohio said one of the passengers on the plane was Grace Maxwell, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering.

Maxwell’s father, Dean Maxwell, said she was returning to campus from her home in Wichita, Kansas, after attending her grandfather’s funeral, the Kansas City Star reported.

Grace Maxwell had been working on project this semester to create a hand-stabilizing device to help a boy in the area feed himself instead of rely on others, the university said in a statement.

“Grace was a quiet person with a keen interest in helping others through engineering,” said Tim Norman, who served as her secondary advisor.

Three other students from schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, and six parents from the district were also on board the plane, superintendent Michelle Reid said in a letter to families. She did not identify them, but she said the students were from different schools and that two of the parents were current or former district staffers.

Seven people returning from a guided hunting trip in Kansas were killed, according to a Facebook post by Fowl Plains, the guide service.

The Fowl Plains team said they had grown close to the hunters on board the flight over the years and considered them to be family members. The post doesn’t identify the hunters by name, but it says they had spent the past week on a guided hunt, “laughing, talking about our families and sharing memories.”

“Heartbroken is an understatement,” the company said.

Those killed also included four steamfitters, all members of a United Association union local in suburban Maryland, union leaders said in a social media post Thursday.

“Our focus now is on providing support and care to the families of our Brothers as we continue to gather more information in the coming days,” said the post by UA General President Mark McManus and Chris Madello, the business manager of Local 602.

The bodies of all three soldiers who were on the helicopter have been recovered.

Officials said the remains will be at Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. That office coordinates the dignified transfer of fallen service members.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet announced. No identities of the crew have been released.

But the wife of one of the helicopter pilots said on Facebook that her husband, Andrew Eaves of Noxubee County Mississippi, was killed. In a phone call, Carrie Eaves confirmed the post was hers.

“We ask that you pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that are suffering today. We ask for peace while we grieve,” her post read.

The three soldiers were doing an annual night proficiency training flight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, adding they were a “fairly experienced crew.” Officials were notifying relatives, he said.

Deadliest U.S. air disaster in almost a quarter century

The plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, and first responders were searching miles of the Potomac, Donnelly said. The helicopter wreckage was also found. Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said said the plane was making a normal approach when “the military aircraft came into the path” of the jet.

One air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration that was obtained by The Associated Press. Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines the roles at 9:30 p.m, once traffic begins to slow down. On Wednesday the tower supervisor directed that they be combined earlier.

“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said. A person familiar with the matter, however, said the tower staffing that night was at a normal level.

The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, during shift changes or when air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.

The Federal Aviation Administration has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers.

Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight slammed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard.

The last major fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, along with one person on the ground, bringing the total death toll to 50.

Experts often highlight that plane travel is overwhelmingly safe, however. The National Safety Council estimates that Americans have a 1-in-93 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, while deaths on airplanes are too rare to calculate the odds. Figures from the Department of Transportation tell a similar story.

Washington:

US President Donald Trump blamed diversity policies implemented during the Obama and Biden administrations for compromising air safety standards. This statement came after a devastating mid-air collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter, resulting in no survivors.

Trump’s remarks have ignited a heated debate about the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The President claimed that these initiatives prioritised policy over safety, stating, “I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first.” He further emphasised, “They actually came out with a directive: ‘too white.’ And we want the people that are competent”.

The FAA’s hiring practices have been under scrutiny, with some critics arguing that DEI programs can be discriminatory. However, supporters of these initiatives contend that they address historical and ongoing discrimination against underrepresented groups, including racial minorities.

Trump has specifically targeted former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, implying that he hired unqualified individuals with disabilities and psychological issues for air traffic control positions. Trump expressed his doubts about their competence, saying, “I don’t think so.” He also claimed that the FAA was “ran into the ground” by DEI hires after being deemed “too white”.

In response to the crash, Trump is appointing Chris Rocheleau as the acting administrator of the FAA. The agency’s hiring practices and safety standards will likely face intense scrutiny in the coming days.

It’s worth noting that changes to the FAA’s hiring practices were made during the Obama administration, which introduced a biographical test as part of the application process. This move aimed to increase diversity among air traffic controllers. However, some have criticised this approach, arguing that it prioritised diversity over competence.
 

File picture of Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov performing their short programme during the World Figure Skating Championships in 1996
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A former world champion Russian figure skating pair and a team of American skaters, with their families, were reportedly aboard the American Airlines regional passenger plane that crashed near Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, U.S., on Wednesday (January 29, 2025).

U.S. Figure Skating, the governing body for figure skating in the United States, said on Thursday (January 30, 2025) that athletes, coaches and family members were returning from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas.

FOLLOW | Washington plane crash LIVE updates

Russian state media meanwhile reported that ice skating coaches and former world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were among those on board the plane. Their son, Maxim, also a skater, may also have been on the plane, Russia’s TASS and RIA news agencies reported.

The plane, with 64 passengers and crew, was en route to Washington, D.C., from Witchita, Kansas, when it was involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Army helicopter.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.

A source told Reuters that as many as 15 people on the flight may have been involved in figure skating.

Officials have not said how many people died in the accident but have suggested that there may be no survivors.

Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater who competed for the Soviet Union, was also reported to have been on board, TASS said. She was a coach at the Washington figure skating club, according to its website.

Rescue boats search Potomac River after a plane on approach to Reagan National Airport crashed into it.