On January 30, 2025, an American Airlines passenger plane and a Black Hawk military helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., after which both aircraft fell into the Potomac River. The crash killed all 64 people on board: 60 passengers and four crew members from the civilian flight and three military personnel.
U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that no one survived the incident.
The Russian Embassy reported that the fatalities included three Russian figure skaters — Evgenia Shishkova, Vadim Naumov, and Inna Volyanskaya.
According to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, released on January 28, the crash was 100% preventable. The report found that the U.S. military failed to warn pilots about potential inaccuracies in altitude data, and the Federal Aviation Administration noted that military personnel had not been trained for congested airspace operations. Additionally, the helicopter crew mistook a more distant aircraft for their target, while the dispatcher did not alert the flight crew of the approaching helicopter.
At the time of the collision, airport airspace was severely overloaded. A single air traffic controller managed five helicopters and six airplanes for over five hours without additional support. During this period, nine collision warnings were received within an 18-minute window before impact.
