An Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet collided in midair near Washington, DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport. The crew of the helicopter may have received incorrect altitude readings just before the crash and failed to hear crucial instructions from air traffic controllers to move behind the plane, according to investigators.
Chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, disclosed that recordings from the Black Hawk helicopter’s cockpit indicated that a garbled radio transmission might have contributed to the crew’s confusion moments before the tragic incident on January 29. All 67 individuals on both aircraft lost their lives.
Homendy mentioned, “That transmission was interrupted – it was stepped on,” which resulted in the crew missing the instruction to “pass behind the” the other aircraft due to the helicopter’s microphone being activated simultaneously.
The Army has said the Black Hawk crew was highly experienced and accustomed to the crowded skies around the nation’s capital.
The Army identified the crew as Captain Rebecca Lobach of Durham, North Carolina; Staff Seargent Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland.
O’Hara was the crew chief and Eaves and Lobach were pilots.
Lobach’s friends and fellow soldiers called her deeply meticulous, “brilliant and fearless”.
The American Airlines jet, which was flying from Wichita, Kansas, and preparing to land at the time of the crash, was piloted by 34-year-old Jonathan Campos, whose relatives said he had dreamed of flying since he was three.
The jet’s passengers ranged from a group of hunters to students and parents from northern Virginia schools to members of the Skating Club of Boston.
They were returning from a development camp for elite junior skaters that followed the 2025 US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Almost immediately after the crash, President Donald Trump publicly faulted the helicopter for flying too high.
He also blamed federal diversity and inclusion efforts, particularly regarding air traffic controllers.
When pressed by reporters, the president could not back up those claims.
A few days later, Trump placed the blame on what he called an “obsolete” air traffic control system.
