Passenger jet with 64 aboard collides with Army helicopter while landing
at Reagan Airport near DC
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, ERIC TUCKER and TARA COPP
Updated 4:35 AM EST, January 30, 2025
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — An American Airlines jet
carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided Wednesday with an Army
helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington,
prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.
There were multiple fatalities, according to a person familiar with the matter,
but the precise number of victims was unclear as rescue crews hunted for any
survivors.
Three soldiers were onboard the helicopter, an Army
official said.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the
collision, but all takeoffs and landings from the airport were halted as dive
teams scoured the site and helicopters from law enforcement agencies across the
region flew over the scene in a methodical search for bodies.
Images from the river showed boats around the partly
submerged wing and what appeared to be the mangled wreckage of the plane’s
fuselage.
“We are going to recover our fellow citizens,”
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a somber news conference at
the airport in which she declined to say how many bodies had been recovered.
Click to read more: https://apnews.com/article/ronald-reagan-national-airport-crash-cebb142d24859ba0c4e0e4fd6c33773f
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What caused the fatal mid-air collision? Key questions about plane
crash
USA TODAY
Key
Points
·
Investigators are
working to determine if either aircraft involved in the collision near Reagan
National Airport was in unauthorized airspace.
·
Experts are examining
whether the collision avoidance system on the American Eagle jet was
functioning and if the Black Hawk helicopter had a similar system in use.
·
The National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation to determine
the cause of the crash and said it will issue preliminary report in 30 days.
In the aftermath of the mid-air collision between
American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near
Washington Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night, officials and the public
are seeking urgent answers regarding the cause of the disaster.
There is plenty of speculation floating around and
lots of theories being put forward by experts and armchair analysts, and while
the drive for answers is understandable, it’s also important to take stock and
be comfortable with the fact that some such answers just take time.
“In the first 24 hours, we usually know very little,
and often what we think we know turns out to be false in the days and weeks to
follow,” William J. McGee, senior fellow for aviation and travel at the
American Economic Liberties Project, told USA TODAY.
For now, less than 24 hours after the crash, we
don’t know very much for certain.
"Since we're just beginning our investigation,
we don't have a great deal of information to share right now," Todd Inman,
a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said at a press conference
Thursday afternoon. "We will keep you informed by getting regular updates
as we learn more."
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DELTA'S OLDEST LIVING PILOTS 2024
My Delta Friends,
Each year since 2006 I have compiled a list
of Delta's Oldest Living Pilots, which includes ALL living
pilots from ANY airline that is now shown on Delta's
Family Tree schematic (attached below).
This is the THIRD and final list
for 2024 and is attached below in MS Excel format
----- and is current as of TODAY, January 16, 2025 -- only...!!!
This list is created from various sources that
provide each pilot's date of birth. The age of each person increases by
one year on their day of birth using a
spreadsheet formula --- so the January 16, 2025 lists are correct for
today only...!!!!
There are two lists of the same information below; first: the NAMES list,
is sorted alphabetically, and the second, the AGES List, is
sorted by Date of Birth. Each list includes, at the beginning, the 75
names of the Oldest Pilots of 2024 who died during 2024.
Due to privacy concerns I will NOT PUBLISH the
pilot's Date of Birth, only the month of birth and the pilot's age - as of the
particular DATE of this report -- which is stated at the top
of the report. But to compile this report accurately I NEED each
pilot's exact Date of Birth in this private data base. There are 1070
names on this years list but 75 of these passed away earlier this year.
Their names are highlighted in Yellow and are listed at the beginning of each
report. The 2023 Oldest Pilot list had 854 names!
If you know Spouse names for any of those not
shown, please click Reply and send me that information. If any pilot
shown passes away during 2024 they will be highlighted in Yellow with their
date of death shown.
I arbitrarily determined several years ago that
a good age for inclusion on this list was the calendar year the pilot reached
the age of 86 and the 2024 list is now as complete as I
can make it. For the year 2024 any living pilot from any of the
companies now on Delta's Family Tree with a date of birth of 1938 or
earlier should be included. The list is a work-in-progress so help me
make it grow, in size and accuracy.
If you know of a pilot whose name is missing and
should be included, please send me that pilot's FULL name, Spouse's name, the
pilot's Date of Birth and Date of Hire and the pilot's ORIGINAL airline company
--- or as much of this as you know. If the spouse is deceased, please
include that information with the spouse's name.
Let's celebrate Delta's Oldest Living Pilots
again-and-again. Send them a Birthday Card or an email at the beginning
of their month of birth. That's close enough to their birthday for us old
folks.
As you can see this list has grown tremendously
with each pilot's original company included. Look for a much longer list
early in 2025. This is the list you want to be on before getting on that 'Other
List' we see so often..!!
Please FORWARD this email with
the attachments to all of your Delta friends as
I only have a limited number of email addresses. Let us insure that
everyone ON this list receives a copy OF this
list..!!!
Thank you for your help --- and yes I,
myself, will finally make it onto next year's Oldest List...!!!
Stay safe out there.
Dave
I thank David Roberts for producing these
helpful lists every year. Here below is
the link to the website page where I have just published David’s new work. Note: because the list is of ‘living’ pilots
I do not let this page on the internet for the public. It is protected by a password available only to
our group, you will see after the link.
Click here:
https://pcn.homestead.com/Archived_Oldest_Liv.html PASSWORD is: pcnpilot
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