Since the start of 2025, deadly plane crashes have dominated the news, with two occuring in Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
D.C. Crash:
On the night of January 29, a Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 coming from Wichita, Kansas. The aircrafts crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport only 3 miles south of the White House.
All sixty-seven passengers were killed.
The reason behind the crash is yet to be confirmed, but ongoing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board have recently revealed that there may have been altimeter (a device that measures altitude) malfunctions and miscommunication between the pilots and air traffic control. According to NBC News, the pilot flying the helicopter indicated that the rotorcraft was at 300 feet, while an instructor pilot said 400 feet. Jennifer Homendy, NTSB Chair, said that there was no communication between the pilots and it is unknown why a discrepancy in altitude was present. In addition to the differing altitude values, the helicopter pilots may not have received vital information from air traffic control; A radio transmission from the tower informing the helicopter about a plane at 1,200 feet was sent at 8:46 PM, but a cockpit voice recorder data within the helicopter suggests that a part of the message “may not have been received by the Black Hawk crew.” The words “circling” could be heard on air traffic control, but not on the cockpit’s voice recorder.
Flight 5342 on the other hand seemed to be receiving messages when it changed course to land on a shorter runway in response to air traffic control distancing the plan from a Canadian twin-engine set to land at Reagan National Airport. The landing was cleared and the plane changed its approach for the new runway. Everything appeared to be running smoothly. The helicopter was asked if the plane was in sight and the pilot said yes, yet another call was made to the helicopter to allow the jet to pass, and air traffic control received no response.
Moments later the helicopter and passenger plane collided.
Passengers on the plane included several skating olympic hopefuls, returning from the National Development Camp, held in connection with the U.S Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. The Figure Skating Club of Boston reported they lost six members: two rising skating stars, their mothers and two star coaches. A new father, a consultant who had recently moved to D.C also died along with many others whose devastating stories are still being discovered.
In response to this tragedy, one of the families of the sixty-seven victims in this crash recently filed for two-hundred-fifty million dollars in claims against the U.S Government. More consequences are yet to come, especially for American Airlines the plane’s company.
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Philadelphia Crash:
To escalate matters further, another plane crash occurred on January 31st, only a few days after the tragic accident in D.C. A medical jet en route to Missouri carrying six passengers crashed on Cottman Avenue. All six people and one person in their car died as the plane collided with the ground. More than two dozen were injured.
Resulting in an eight-foot deep crater within a parking lot in Roosevelt Mall, the plane transformed into a fireball, enveloping nearby homes, businesses and cars in its flames. Video footage taken by cars and phones show an abrupt burst of light and debris as the plane made contact with the street. At first, a giant plume of orange appeared, then great clouds of black smoke. The images create an almost post-apocalyptic feeling, showing streets covered in fiery debris and destroyed, abandoned buildings.
There is less information about this particular incident in comparison to the D.C. crash, but its extremely close timing has raised many concerns from the public.
Concerns Arise Amid Aircraft Disasters
These two tragedies are only a part of the recent compilation of aviation disasters. A plane that went missing in Alaska was found along with ten deceased. A Japan Airlines plane struck the tail of a Delta plane and a United Airlines flight had to be evacuated after its right wing caught on fire. This whole series of disasters have set the public on edge. Although it is widely known that planes are safer than cars, the increasing amount of accidents is creating a lot of uncertainty about the safety of air travel, leaving people asking themselves: Is it safe to fly? The reason for the high coverage on all these incidents is because they are extraordinarily rare. The NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, have been investigating these crashes for what caused them and how to prohibit any more destruction, in the hopes to prevent future accidents and restore public trust in the aviation industry.
