The United States experienced its worst air disaster since 2001 and its first fatal disaster involving a commercial aircraft in more than 15 years when an American Airlines plane and a military helicopter collided midair late Wednesday.
Around 9pm ET, American Eagle Flight No. 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, collided midair with an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was on a training mission. Both aircraft fell into the icy waters of the Potomac River below.
The commercial airliner carrying 60 passengers and four crew members was approaching a runway at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. The helicopter was carrying three service members and belonged to B Company, 12th Aviation Battalion out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
Hundreds of first responders rushed to the scene. By Monday morning, emergency personnel transitioned from a rescue mission to a recovery operation, as officials did not believe any of the 67 combined passengers survived. At least 28 bodies had been pulled from the water – 27 from the civilian jet and one from the military helicopter. There is still much to be learned about the victims, but as many as 14 figure skaters from the U.S. and Russia were on the American Eagle flight.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by aviation experts John Hansman and Matthew “Whiz” Buckley to discuss what we know so far and what may have caused the tragic crash.
What We Know
In the wake of the collision, many have wondered why the helicopter was in the vicinity of the commercial airliner to begin with. Hansman said congested airspace is to be expected given the highly centralized location of Reagan National. “In an area like [this]… you have military operations to the Pentagon and things like that and you have the airport right there,” he explained. “So, it’s not unusual.”
He noted the air traffic controllers are used to such conditions and “had given the clearance to the helicopter to avoid the traffic” that was “in sight,” but something went wrong after that.
While the helicopter pilot acknowledged “traffic in sight,” Buckley said it may have been in reference to a different aircraft. “Most likely, it wasn’t the same traffic that the air traffic controller was talking about,” he speculated. “Clearly, he didn’t have that exact traffic insight because he ended up hitting him.”
Buckley believes the forthcoming investigation will not focus too much on the American Eagle flight. “The RJ [regional jet] crew were in the zone. They were cleared to land, gear down, flaps down, stabilized approach. They’re looking at the runway environment – is there an airline around, is somebody crossing that,” he explained. “They are singularly focused… so nothing on the RJ crew.”
Instead, there are many questions Hansman believes need to be answered about the conditions in the helo. “Was there a miscalculation? Did they get distracted? Did they see the wrong target? Were they using night vision goggles or something? This is what will be the focus of the investigation,” he said. “You wouldn’t do this on purpose, so there was clearly some sort of error… What we try to do in an accident investigation is to dig into the cause.”
Remembering the Victims
Those answers will hopefully come, but, in the meantime, Megyn said our thoughts and prayers must be with all those involved in this tragedy.
“We haven’t gotten all the details, but undoubtedly there will have been children, there will have been grandmas, there will have been people who had no idea that getting on a flight from Kansas to Washington, D.C., would be the last thing they would ever do,” she said. “The only comfort to me as somebody who has a mild to moderate fear of flying is that they wouldn’t have suffered.”
Buckley said he is also thinking about the soldiers who lost their lives. “My heart definitely goes out to, obviously, all the civilians,” he added. “But three Army folks woke up yesterday, threw on their flight suits, and did not expect for this to happen. They passed serving their country, so God bless.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Hansman and Buckley by tuning in to episode 996 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.