On January 29th, 2025, the United States suffered its first hull loss of a passenger airliner since the Colgan crash of 2009. Tragically, 67 people appear to have perished after a mid-air collision between a CRJ-700 regional jet operated by PSA (contracted by American Airlines) and a military UH-60 Blackhawk.
SEE: President Trump, other Officials Respond to Fatal Air Crash Over the Potomac
The CRJ was flying a circling approach to runway 33 at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA), which sits directly across the river from the nation’s Capitol. In layman’s terms, they were flying down the Potomac with the end of the approach being a low-altitude left turn onto short final to land (about 500 feet above the ground). There’s nothing unusual about that, and from all the tracks I’ve seen, the CRJ was exactly where it should have been, with the caveat being that…
