NTSB to highlight what led to a deadly midair collision near Washington,
DC, at daylong hearing
[January 27, 2026]
By JOSH FUNK, GARY FIELDS and ED WHITE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A daylong hearing on Tuesday should make clear what
factors played the biggest role in causing last January's midair
collision near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people, and the National
Transportation Safety Board will recommend what should be done to
prevent similar tragedies.
Everyone aboard an American Airlines jet flying from Wichita, Kansas,
and an Army Black Hawk helicopter died when the two aircraft ran into
each other and plummeted into the icy Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025. It
was the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001.
The Federal Aviation Administration made a number of changes shortly
after the crash to ensure that helicopters and planes no longer share
the same crowded airspace around the nation's capital, and last week it
made those changes permanent. But the NTSB will recommend additional
action, and the families of the victims have said they hope that leads
to meaningful changes.
“I hope that we see a clear path through the recommendations they offer
to ensure that this never happens again,” said Rachel Feres, who lost
her cousin Peter Livingston and his wife and two young daughters in the
crash. “That nobody else has to wake up to hear that an entire branch of
their family tree is gone or their wife is gone or the child is gone.
That’s what I hope coming out of this. I hope we have clarity and
urgency.”
Whether that happens will depend on how Congress, the Army and the Trump
administration respond after the hearing. But the victims' families say
they will keep the pressure on officials to act.
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Rescue and salvage crews pull up a part of a Army Black Hawk
helicopter that collided midair with an American Airlines jet, at a
wreckage site in the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington
National Airport, Feb. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jose
Luis Magana, File)
Young Alydia and Everly Livingston were among 28 members of the figure
skating community who died in the crash. Many of them had been in
Wichita for a national skating competition and development camp.
The NTSB has already spelled out many of the key factors that
contributed to the crash and detailed what happened that night. That
includes a poorly designed helicopter route past Reagan Airport, the
fact that the Black Hawk was flying 78 feet (23.7 meters) higher than it
should have been, the warnings that the FAA ignored in the years
beforehand and the Army’s move to turn off a key system that would have
broadcast the helicopter’s location more clearly.
A number of other high-profile crashes and close calls followed the D.C.
collision last year and worried the flying public. But NTSB statistics
show that the total number of crashes last year was actually the lowest
since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 with 1,405 crashes nationwide.
___
Fields reported from Washington. Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska
and White reported from Detroit. AP Airlines writer Rio Yamat
contributed from Las Vegas.
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