DC Air Disaster: Final Minutes Revealed (2026)

[bunniefuu]

[ominous tone plays]

[narrator]

In January 2025,

a collision between

a Black Hawk

military helicopter

and a passenger plane

over Washington DC

shocks America.

-[indistinct radio chatter]

-[pilot] Tower, did you

see that?

67 people lost their lives.

What led to this catastrophe?

That was when I saw

what looked like

a very big Roman candle,

but up in the air.

Now, one year later,

investigators use

forensic analysis to

examine the evidence

and piece together

what happened

in those

final minutes.

[Jeff] The margin

of safety wasn't there.

This accident was preventable.

The collision comes at

the start of a deadly year

for global aviation.

I was shocked that we survived.

What caused America's

most fatal aviation disaster

in more than 20 years?

And as our skies grow

increasingly crowded...

what can be done to safeguard

the lives of passengers?

[orchestral music plays]

Ronald Reagan Washington

National Airport

in Arlington, Virginia,

is one of the busiest airports

in the United States.

Built in the early 1940s,

it handles more than

800 takeoffs and landings

every day.

Washington National Ronald

Reagan Airport sits right on

the Potomac River, just less

than a mile from the monuments

of Washington DC.

It's a very popular airport for

the congressmen and senators

here because they can fly

nonstop back to

their constituents

in other states.

Commercial flights coming in to

land follow the course of

the river, a route which

provides a never-ending

spectacle for those

on the ground.

[Ari] If you're in the vicinity

of Washington National Airport

at night, what you will see is

a string of pearls of airplanes

lined up way out into

the distance at regular

intervals coming in to land.

It's almost like a ballet

or a dance, watching them come

in, especially when the weather

is really good and clear

as it was that night.

On the evening of

January 29, 2025...

American Airlines Flight

5342 was getting ready

to travel from Wichita,

Kansas to Washington DC.

The flight was operated

by PSA Airlines, and the route

from Wichita was

relatively new,

opened just 12 months earlier.

Among the 64 passengers

and crew were 28 people

returning from a figure skating

training camp.

My name is Doug Lane.

My wife, Christine Conrad Lane,

and my 16-year-old son,

Spencer Lane, were both

on the flight that day.

Spencer was about nine months

old when we adopted him.

From the moment I met him,

I started to think of him

as my little adventurer because

he was just always looking for

the next thing to get into.

He started later in figure

skating than is traditionally

the case, so he was

about 12 years old.

I don't know that anyone has

ever done what he did in terms

of going from basic learn

to skate in 2022 to winning

sectionals at the intermediate

level in late 2024.

It's very competitive to get

invited to that camp.

And it really just signifies

the fact that you are somebody

who's on the radar

as a prospect for Team USA.

I talked to Christine not long

before they got underway.

She had mentioned to me some of

the other people that were

on the flight, and, um...

and that was that.

So they got underway.

The flight took off from

Wichita at 6:39 PM

on a journey that was due to

take two hours and 45 minutes.

At the controls were

Captain Jonathan Campos

and 28-year-old

First Officer Sam Lilley.

Sam's decision to become

a professional pilot meant

following in

his father's footsteps.

[Tim] My name is Tim Lilley.

I've been a professional pilot

since 1986.

Sam was a great

character, actually.

He was a great kid growing up.

We all loved him.

I was very proud when Sam told

me he wanted to become a pilot,

and I was very proud

when he accomplished it.

At 8:15 PM,

Flight 5342 began its descent

into Washington DC.

As the jet approached

Ronald Reagan National Airport,

it entered an airspace

crisscrossed by a network

of helicopter routes.

The airspace over

Washington DC

is extremely complex,

so there is a large mix of

military helicopters

and commercial airline traffic.

Airliners can't cross over

into the east side of

the Potomac River because that's

where the White House is.

At the same time as Flight

5342 was coming in to land,

US Army Black Hawk helicopter

Call Sign Priority

Air Transport 25

was on a training mission.

It was following

the Potomac River south along

helicopter routes 1 and 4.

-[whirring]

-[suspenseful music plays]

[Jeff] The helicopter had

an instructor pilot,

another pilot that was

receiving instruction,

and a crew chief.

It was a night training mission

to fly around that area

and to also fly using

night vision goggles.

At 8:43 PM,

American Airlines Flight 5342

was 10.5 nautical miles

from Ronald Reagan

National Airport.

It was scheduled to land

at Runway 1.

But at the last moment,

air traffic control asked it to

switch to Runway 33 because

of wind conditions.

The helicopter

is flying south

towards

National Airport

along the Potomac River.

Meanwhile,

you had an airliner

heading north

to land

on Runway 33.

The helicopter crew

was talking to

air traffic controllers

at Washington

Reagan National Airport.

The controller pointed out

traffic to the helicopter

and said that you've got

an airliner that's circling to

land, and the helicopter crew

acknowledged that transmission.

As Flight 5342

continued its descent,

on the ground was

Ari Shulman.

He was in his car on his way

home from church.

I was coming home

unusually late.

I remember that the highway was

very clear and also that

the air was very clear

and that there was,

it was very dark

and there was no moon.

So you could see the planes

really, really well.

And I remember being struck

by how unusually beautiful

and brilliant the planes were.

At 8:47 PM, air traffic

control once again made contact

with the helicopter.

The controller instructed

the Black Hawk

to avoid

the passenger jet.

The airliner was now so low,

it was clearly visible to

eyewitness Ari Shulman.

[Ari] I was driving along

the highway, and at a certain

point, I passed by the airport.

So it was then that I looked

off to my left and saw this

plane coming in to land.

I was very close to it.

It was brightly illuminated.

I could see all of the details.

I could see the wing lights

on the plane.

The two aircraft were just

seconds apart.

What happened next was captured

on an airport

surveillance camera.

[indistinct radio chatter]

That was when I saw

what looked like a very big

Roman candle, but up in the air.

For a few moments,

there is silence.

Until another pilot calls in.

-[pilot speaking]

-[indistinct].

Despite what has happened,

there are still planes

and passengers in the air.

Air traffic control must

determine how to land all

the aircraft safely while also

alerting fire and rescue.

[air traffic control speaking]

The US Coast Guard is among

those contacted.

In charge of the station

at Washington DC

is Lieutenant Commander

Kim Jenish,

who has just finished

for the day.

On January 29th, on that

evening, I was already home

and had just finished dinner

with my husband, settling in for

the evening, and the call

came in at 8:52 PM.

Hearing the words, "A plane has

just crashed into the river,"

felt unreal.

Kim and her colleagues know

they must reach the crash site

as quickly as possible if they

are to rescue any survivors.

On that night,

the priority was to find anyone

in the water and pull them out.

The conditions were quite harsh

between the wind,

the ice conditions,

and the murky waters.

There were parts everywhere,

and in addition to that,

there was a significant amount

of fuel in the water.

And when looking out across

the river, all you could see

was a whole line of emergency

vehicles from everywhere.

I'd never seen

that many emergency vehicles

concentrated in such

a small area.

[suspenseful music plays]

Hundreds of miles away

in Rhode Island is Doug Lane,

whose wife Christine and son

Spencer were on the plane.

They were due to catch

a connecting flight home.

I was kind of tracking

their flight to DCA

just because, you know,

I'm like that and I'd like to

just track and see

what's happening.

And as the time was coming for

the flight to land, I was kind

of refreshing the status

and it just kind of

wasn't really updating.

I tried texting them

and the texts weren't

going through.

And so that was a little odd.

Just as I was k*lling time,

I actually pulled up CNN.com

and there wasn't even

an article, but there was just

a little like breaking news

ticker across the top that

said, "Small plane crashed

in the Potomac River."

And I immediately flashed back

to talking with Christine about

how when you fly into DCA,

you always have to go

over the Potomac.

And then just my breath was

literally just taken away,

and my heart was kind of just

beating out of my chest

at that point.

Tim Lilley, the father of

First Officer Sam and himself

a pilot, is also concerned

by the news.

[Tim]

When this accident happened,

I was in Teterboro because

I was out on a trip, and I was

gonna have an early morning

show, and I saw on TV

there had been an accident.

And it was in DC,

and I realized it was a CRJ,

and it was flying under

the American Airlines flag,

so I immediately started

texting him.

But, of course, he didn't

text me back, right?

And that's not unusual,

because if he was flying,

he would have turned

his phone off.

Tim is unable to get a hold of

his son, so messages his wife.

Together, they contact

Sam's fiance.

And then my wife put us on

a three-way phone call.

My wife actually asked her

what leg he was flying,

and she said, "Well,

from Wichita to DC," and that

was devastating because

that was the point that

we knew it was probably him.

Tim's worst fears are

confirmed just before 10 PM.

How could a passenger jet

collide with a helicopter

over the nation's capital?

In the freezing waters

of the Potomac River...

rescuers work to find survivors

of Flight 5342

and Army Helicopter

PAT 25.

Restricted by the darkness

and numbed by cold,

the scene is almost

beyond comprehension.

[Lt. Cdr. Jenish]

I had received a third call

from my duty officer,

who was part of the search

and rescue crew.

At that point,

his crew members, who're some of

our youngest members

at the station,

they were starting to pull

victims onto the boat.

And at that point,

the reality of it

really became real.

The helicopter wreckage lies

approximately .7 miles to

the southeast of the airport.

The plane has broken

into pieces,

the bulk of which are located

less than half a mile

from the runway.

[Lt. Cdr. Jenish]

Every emergency first

responder out there went out

with the hope to find

survivors early on.

Unfortunately, into the early

morning, it started to become

clear that we would not

be finding survivors,

but rather the focus would be

on recovering all the victims.

The realization

is gut-wrenching,

but the effort continues.

I had never seen

as much heart, courage,

and dedication

just absolutely put out there.

In such harsh conditions,

that was never a barrier

to people's response.

[dramatic chord strike]

Daylight reveals the true scale

of the collision,

the partially submerged

fuselage of the jet

and the Black Hawk

in the icy river.

No one on board either aircraft

has survived.

67 people lost their lives.

It's the first large-scale

fatal crash involving

a commercial American airliner

for 16 years.

How did it happen?

Investigators from the National

Transportation Safety Board,

NTSB, arrive on the scene.

They are the agency responsible

for investigating

air traffic accidents.

[Graham]

When an aircraft accident

occurs, the priority for

the investigator is to

make sure that evidence

is preserved.

So, they will tend to deploy

quite rapidly to

an accident site.

Their aim is to understand what

happened, why it happened,

and what recommendations may be

made to make sure it doesn't

happen in the future.

One of the team's first

actions is to launch a drone to

record the position of

the two aircraft.

In every case, the NTSB

uses a very detailed forensic

approach to

document the wreckage.

Typically, the majority of

the wreckage is documented

immediately, within a few days

of recovery.

The freezing conditions

stir memories of the last

major fatal crash to happen

at the airport.

On January 13, 1982,

Air Florida Flight 90

crashed into the frozen

Potomac River.

Photojournalist Chester Panzer

witnessed the disaster.

[Chester] The weather

that day was really cold.

It had stopped snowing

when we got to the crash site.

The river had been frozen over

because it had been so cold

for such a long time.

I described the crash site

as what looked like a baseball

going through a plate-glass

window, but you could not

see a plane.

The plane was underwater.

The 737 jet, with 79

passengers and crew,

hit the 14th Street Bridge

moments after takeoff.

Rescuers faced even worse

sub-zero temperatures than

those 40 years later

as they searched for survivors.

We then went a little closer

to the rescue scene where

the helicopter had lifted

a female out of the water with

a rope under her arms.

When the last survivor was

still in the water,

I was convinced

she was gonna drown

because of the helicopter.

The wash was

pushing her underwater.

Only five of the 79 people

on board survived.

Four died on the ground.

The investigation found

that weather played

an important factor

in the crash.

[Graham] In 1982, the aircraft

took off in conditions that were

snowy and icy.

It unfortunately meant that

the wing was contaminated with

snow and ice, and also it seems

that the engine anti-ice system

was not activated, so the power

from the engine

just was not enough for that

aircraft to accelerate

away and climb.

In Washington,

investigators hunt for a vital

piece of equipment that

they hope will help them

unravel the cause of

the latest accident,

the two aircraft's flight data

and voice recorders,

known as black boxes.

[Jeff]

In major airline accidents,

the flight recorders are key

to solving the accident.

The flight data recorder

is recording several

parameters across the whole

aircraft, and you can marry up

the timing of the conversations

and noises with the flight data

recorder, and that really gives

you a much better picture of

exactly what was happening

second-by-second just prior

to the accident.

As the search for the black

boxes gets underway,

the families of the victims

face an agonizing wait

for answers.

Doug Lane, whose wife Christine

and son Spencer were

on the flight, is at home

with his other son.

I'm not sure I actually

remember when I got

confirmation about

the lack of survivors.

I think it was pretty early

in the process.

There was a point, as there

often is, where they say,

"We're moving from a rescue

to a recovery stage."

So I want to

say it was almost

that first night

or maybe early into

the next day that I had

the realization that

they were definitely gone.

So there wasn't a lot of

time to really hold out hope.

Doug decides to travel down to

Washington DC, as does Tim,

the father of

First Officer Sam Lilley.

I did go to Reagan National

that very first night.

I think I got there around

2 or 3 in the morning.

By the time I got to DC,

I had heard already

that there was no survivors.

When a child dies

in a horrific accident,

you don't come to terms with it

within days or weeks.

The first few days, you're in

shock, and you almost don't

believe it.

The next day, the US

military releases the names of

the Black Hawk helicopter crew

on the training mission.

At the controls was

Captain Rebecca Lobach,

alongside Chief Warrant

Officer Two, Andrew Eaves,

and Crew Chief Staff

Sergeant Ryan O'Hara.

Why did two aircraft flown by

professional pilots collide?

The need for answers is urgent,

not only for the sake of

the victims' families,

but to help prevent scenarios

like this from happening

in the future.

And this will not be the only

accident to happen in 2025

involving a US airliner.

One week after the collision

over Washington DC,

investigators recover

the remains of the Black Hawk

helicopter from

the Potomac River.

Each section is secured in

preparation for its journey to

a forensics hangar.

The physical wreckage that's

maybe left behind in

an accident is incredibly

valuable to the investigator.

As you recover it, as you

pull it out of the water,

what you need to be careful

not to do is

introduce new marks

or new damage.

The team also has the wreckage

of the jet, which they lay out

for examination.

One of the key things that

the NTSB looks at in wreckage,

especially in mid-air

collisions, are scratch marks

and rotor blade strikes.

And from that,

they can corroborate

the information they're getting

from the videos, from the ADS-B

recorded radar track,

and from the distribution

of the wreckage.

The investigators also want to

know if either aircraft had any

mechanical issues that may have

contributed to the accident.

And just days into

the forensic investigation,

another US jet is involved in

a landing accident.

[dramatic chord strike]

My name is Hannah Krebs,

and on February 17th, 2025,

I hopped on a flight from

Minnesota to Toronto

to meet some coworkers.

At 12:47 PM,

Delta Connection Flight 4819

departs Minneapolis.

Its destination

is Toronto Pearson Airport,

700 miles to the east.

76 passengers and four crew are

on board the commuter plane.

As the plane makes a routine

approach to land,

temperatures are below

freezing, and the wind is

gusting up to

40 miles per hour.

Once we were descending,

we started getting knocked

around quite a bit by the wind,

but nothing felt really wrong

to me other than, you know,

it was quite

a turbulent descent.

And that continued right up

until we hit the ground.

[indistinct]

[witness] Oh, [bleep].

Oh, [bleep].

Oh no, no, no, no, no.

[witness #2] [indistinct],

airplane just crashed.

I was...

shocked that we survived.

Once we hit the ground, I could

tell that it was way too hard.

Everything started

shifting this way.

Suddenly, before I knew it,

we were upside down.

I could hear the metal scraping

on the ground

as we skidded along,

and we skidded for

what felt like forever.

And then when we stopped,

it all got quiet.

For a millisecond, there was

this collective breath of air

where everyone goes, "OK,

"we're alive.

Everyone's alive.

We're stopped.

What do we do now?"

I don't remember exactly how

I got myself down, but I must

have just unclipped myself

and fell on to what used to be

the ceiling and was

now the floor.

There was no stampeding,

no rush, no nothing.

Everyone just got into

an orderly line and evacuated.

[indistinct]

[John] We just landed.

Our plane crashed.

It's upside down.

[Hannah] When I got to the front

and the flight attendant

stopped the line and told me,

you need to drop that,

leave your backpack,

leave your backpack.

[flight attendant] Just drop it.

Come on.

[Hannah]

The person getting thrown out

in the black parka was me.

Remarkably, all 80 passengers

and crew escape

with their lives.

[tense music plays]

A preliminary investigation by

Canada's Air Transport Board

finds that the hard touchdown

caused the plane's landing gear

to fracture.

Close examination

of the footage

suggests that

as the landing gear collapsed,

it pushed the weight

of the fuselage

onto the right wing.

The wing then sheared off,

and the plane rolled

onto its roof.

Like most passenger jets,

the wings contained fuel tanks,

so when one wing detached,

the risk of expl*si*n

was reduced,

and the passengers survived.

But in Washington, there is

no obvious indication of

a catastrophic

mechanical failure.

So investigators must turn to

the black boxes for answers.

Why were the two aircraft

on flight paths that crossed?

Two weeks after the accident

at Washington National Airport,

investigators hunt for clues to

explain how two planes collided

in one of the world's most

tightly controlled airspaces.

[Graham] Mid-air collisions

are a very

unusual and rare type

of accident.

But when they do occur,

they often happen in busy

airspace, which is found often

around airports where aircraft

are climbing,

descending,

or they're

following particular routes.

[Jeff] Well, I've investigated

several mid-air collisions.

They're very unique accidents.

It has everything to do

with geometry.

One of the worst

mid-air collisions in

US history happened in

September 1978 in San Diego,

when a Boeing 727 operated

by Pacific Southwest Airlines

collided with a small

Cessna plane.

A photographer captured an

image of the jet on fire

as it plummeted

to the ground.

[Graham] In San Diego, the two

aircraft fell to ground in

a built-up area.

Seven people on the ground

lost their lives out of

a total of 144.

[Jeff] The loss of life

was massive.

It was the deadliest accident

in US history

at that time.

It still remains the deadliest

accident in the state of

California with regard

to an aircraft accident.

The San Diego investigation

examined the position of

the two aircraft in relation

to each other.

The investigators spent a lot

of time focusing on what it was

that the crew of the aircraft

would have been able to see.

And unfortunately, because of

the design of the two aircraft

and where they were,

neither aircraft probably saw

each other until

they'd actually collided.

[Jeff]

In this case, the airline crew

lost sight of the Cessna 172

but never told

the air traffic controller.

And those two aircraft came

together and collided about

2,600 feet above the ground,

k*lling everybody

in both airplanes.

After the accident,

collision avoidance systems

were developed to help aircraft

maintain their distance

from each other.

But they cannot entirely

remove the risk of

a mid-air collision.

Air traffic controllers are key

to keeping planes

apart mid-flight.

Paul Rinaldi is a former

air traffic controller.

When you look at the DCA

event, the number one mission

of an air traffic controller is

to prevent airplanes

from colliding.

We are the stop signs,

the speed limits,

the red lights

and green lights in the sky,

because they're not there.

And on that night,

unfortunately, we failed.

In Washington, analysis of

the voice recordings in

the 2025 mid-air collision

reveals that the first contact

between the passenger plane

and the tower takes place

at 8:43 PM,

when the aircraft is asked to

divert to Runway 33

due to wind conditions.

After a brief discussion,

the crew accepts

the new request.

At this time,

the Black Hawk

helicopter

is north

of the airport,

flying south along

helicopter route four.

The helicopter's path will

take it directly beneath

the approach to Runway 33.

How far did the switch

in runways contribute to

what happened?

So if the airplane would have

continued on route 1,

that wouldn't have gotten into

the path of the helicopter.

They would have

stayed separated.

But because

the airliner

was asked

to land on

Runway 33,

that is

within the path

of helicopter

route four,

thus increasing

the risk of collision.

So at 8:46 PM, air traffic

control first alerts

the helicopter crew to

the passenger plane up ahead,

or CRJ, short for

Canadair Regional Jet.

This footage, filmed on

the night, shows helicopter

PAT 25 close to

Memorial Bridge,

less than a mile north

of the airport.

The helicopter crew asks

the air traffic controller

for visual separation.

Visual separation means that

the pilots are going to

visually separate themselves

by looking at the other target

and keep away from that target.

The onus now is on the pilot,

not the controller, to ensure

that there's no collision.

The use of visual separation

is not uncommon.

But normally the other aircraft

is alerted, too.

Staffing at air traffic control

has also come under scrutiny.

Two separate air traffic

controllers typically supervise

the movements of

commercial aircraft

and military helicopters

at Reagan National Airport.

But on the night of the crash,

a single controller was

handling both helicopter

and commercial traffic.

An internal report for

the Federal Aviation

Administration,

which was leaked

to "The New York Times,"

suggests that staffing levels

were not normal for

the time of day

and volume of traffic.

That controller was doing

an amazing job working to get

airplanes into the airport

and off the airport.

And it's high-intensity work

that he was doing.

That's why that position,

the helicopter position,

is supposed to be separated

from his function.

Audio recordings reveal that

the controller receives

an automated traffic alert

approximately 20 seconds

before the collision.

The controller then asks

the helicopter pilots

if they can see the plane.

Following standard

procedure, the single

air traffic controller

is communicating with

the passenger plane

and Army helicopter on two

separate radio frequencies.

But close analysis of the voice

recordings reveals that

the Army pilots may not have

received the air traffic

controller's instruction to

pass behind the passenger jet.

Whenever you're communicating

with air traffic controller

with another aircraft,

sometimes you can be

what they call, "stepped on."

[Paul] If two pilots are talking

at the same time or if

a controller and a pilot are

talking at the same time,

nothing gets through.

Our communications

and frequencies,

it's antiquated.

But even if the Army pilots

did not hear the message

from air traffic control,

why did the collision happen

when the helicopter crew twice

said it had the passenger plane

in sight?

The nature of the helicopter's

training mission

may provide a clue.

NTSB investigators reveal that

the helicopter crew may have

been wearing night vision

goggles during a continuity of

government evacuation exercise.

[Jeff]

When you wear night vision

goggles, it's like looking

through a couple of

paper towel tubes, right?

Your peripheral vision

is blocked off.

You have to constantly

move your head.

It limits your peripheral

vision, and it's

more difficult and challenging,

in my view, to point out

specific targets that are being

called out by a controller.

It's even more difficult to use

night vision goggles when

you're in an area

with lots of light.

This image replicates how

the city may have appeared

through night vision goggles.

Did the use of this equipment

impair what the helicopter crew

could see?

I think it's a very distinct

possibility that the crew on

the helicopter was looking at

the wrong aircraft.

There is evidence that the

pilots of the passenger plane

saw the helicopter

only at the very last moment.

The flight data recorder

indicated that the nose of

the airplane came up abruptly

and then began to bank to

the left the final one second

before the collision.

In my mind, that tells me

that the airline crew saw

the helicopter just prior

to the collision.

That wasn't enough time

to get out of the way of

the helicopter's flight path.

It's likely the investigation

will look at any potential

failures in communication.

But a preliminary report

published by the NTSB in March

hints at deeper issues.

It makes an urgent

safety recommendation,

which leads the FAA to impose

new restrictions regarding

helicopter traffic around DCA.

Statistically, flying is

the safest form of travel.

How did this catastrophic

collision happen

against the odds?

-[orchestral music plays]

-[whoosh]

Exactly one month before

the deadly mid-air collision

at Washington National Airport,

another aircraft

landing accident,

this time in South Korea,

marks the start of a deadly

12 months for global aviation.

On December 29, 2024,

Jeju Air Flight 2216

takes off at 2:29 AM

from Bangkok, Thailand,

headed for Muan, South Korea,

more than 2,000 miles

to the northeast.

Among the 181 passengers

and crew on board

the Boeing 737

are Park Seung-h* and

Oh In-kyung.

They are traveling home from

vacation to be with their son.

My name is Geun-woo Park,

and I live in

Gwangju, South Korea.

I am currently a student

going to university.

After an uneventful flight,

the plane is cleared to land on

the single runway at

Muan International Airport.

At 8:57 AM, air traffic

control alerts the pilots that

there are birds

in the vicinity.

Just over a minute later,

one of the pilots reports that

their aircraft has been

hit by a bird strike.

They declare a mayday

and announce they are

making a go-around.

This means they have

aborted their landing

and will attempt to land again.

On board the aircraft, Geun-woo

Park's mother witnesses

the bird strike

and texts her son.

[Geun-woo, speaking

foreign language]

The next two messages

Geun-woo sent

are still unread.

Lee Geun-young runs

a restaurant

less than 650 feet

from the runway at Muan.

He is getting ready to open

when he hears a series of

loud bangs from a plane.

[speaking foreign language]

Lee's video reveals how

the plane touches down,

heading for a concrete barrier

at the end of the runway.

[speaking foreign language]

[Geun-woo, speaking

foreign language]

[sirens wailing]

Rescue teams race in to help

from across the region.

The scene they find

is catastrophic.

Both engines are buried

in the earth.

And only the tail section

is recognizable.

Remarkably, two cabin crew

members are still alive in

the wreckage of

the plane's tail.

They are taken to the hospital

with serious injuries.

Geun-woo's parents are

among those who died.

In total, 179 people

lost their lives,

making this South Korea's

deadliest aviation disaster.

This CCTV footage obtained by

Korean broadcaster KBS appears

to show the moment the plane

hits a large flock of birds

as it comes in to land,

followed by the eventual loss

of power to both engines.

If you lose both engines,

you may lose the ability to

drop your landing gear.

And we kind of see that

in the video.

They had to

belly-land the airplane.

I think they did a really

good job belly-landing it.

Many more passengers

might still have survived

if the plane hadn't collided

with a concrete barrier

at the end of the runway.

[Jeff] I think everyone would

have walked away from this

if that giant concrete berm

wasn't in

the airport perimeter.

The airplane just simply would

have slowed down and skidded to

a stop, but instead it hit

that thing and it turned into

a fireball, and it was

just very tragic.

-[sirens wailing]

-[somber music plays]

The South Korea accident had

very different causes to

the one in Washington DC.

But as with

the Washington DC crash,

it occurred

during landing.

This is one of the most

dangerous times for any flight.

[Graham] When we look at

phases of flight,

the takeoff and the landing

phase can account for up to

80% of accidents.

They're a critical part of

the flight where the aircraft

is either

accelerating or decelerating.

They're maneuvering in an area

where there's lots

of other traffic.

[Jeff] Taking off can be

dangerous because you're at

takeoff thrust, your engines are

really working hard.

Landings can be a hazardous

situation because you're at

a slow speed where you're close

to an aerodynamic stall speed.

And anytime you're close to

the ground, you have less time

to handle a potential problem.

[dramatic chord strike]

16 years before

the Korean bird strike,

a domestic American flight

encountered a similar problem.

[tense music plays]

[Sully] That day began literally

like 10,000 other days.

And Flight 1549, like almost

every flight I'd had at that

point for 42 years and 20,000

hours in the air,

was completely

routine and unremarkable

for the first 100 seconds.

And 100 seconds after takeoff,

I saw birds, and then

they were upon us.

I'm Captain Sully Sullenberger.

I was the captain of

US Airways Flight 1549 in the

2009 Hudson River landing.

155 passengers and crew were

aboard Flight 1549 as it took

off from New York's LaGuardia

Airport, bound for Seattle.

First Officer Jeff Skiles was

flying the aircraft.

Less than two minutes

after takeoff, the plane hit

a flock of large birds.

Almost immediately, I began to

hear terrible noises coming

from the engines

I'd never heard

in an airplane

in flight before.

The most sickening pit of

your stomach falling through

the floor feeling

I'd ever heard.

It was a [vocalizing].

The thrust loss was

sudden, complete, both engines

at once.

It felt as if

the forward momentum

of the airplane nearly

stopped in mid-air.

It felt like the bottom was

falling out of our world.

I knew it was a matter of

perhaps 90 seconds or so before

we would lose

electrical power to our

flight control computers.

[Sully] I took

control of the aircraft

from Jeff Skiles,

because as captain,

it was my responsibility

to fly in this

extreme emergency.

At low altitude at about

2,800 feet over New York City,

I knew from experience that

there were only three options

for us.

LaGuardia Airport, from which

we had departed,

the Teterboro Airport across

the river in New Jersey,

and the Hudson River.

[Sully] I knew that

our best choice,

the only place I knew I could

glide far enough to reach,

was our third option.

So I chose door number three,

Hudson River.

I chose the least bad option,

and I was very glad to have it.

I said, "This is the captain,

brace for impact."

And almost immediately through

that hardened c*ck door,

I could hear the flight

attendants begin shouting,

"Brace, brace, brace,

heads down, stay down,

brace, brace, brace."

I was looking primarily

at the river ahead of us,

trying to visually judge

the height at which to begin

the landing, to begin

raising the nose.

If I did it too soon, we'd get

too slow and hit too hard.

If I did it too late,

we would hit the water

nose first and perhaps damage

the airplane further.

[dramatic chord strike]

The landing was hard,

but the deceleration in the

river, while rapid, was uniform.

And once we had

stopped in the river,

it was obvious that

the airplane was intact.

It was stable.

It was floating.

Jeff and I, in that moment,

turned to each other

at the same time

and the same words said,

"Well, that wasn't

as bad as I thought."

All 155 passengers and crew

survived the emergency landing,

now often referred to as,

"The miracle on the Hudson."

In New York, only the quick

thinking of the pilots saved

the Hudson flight.

But in both South Korea

and Washington, the crews had

no time to react.

So what more could be done

to safeguard lives at these

critical phases of a flight?

Could the collision in

Washington have been prevented?

[anticipatory music plays]

Six months after the mid-air

collision over Washington DC,

hearings begin

into the accident.

Thank you for

joining us today.

We're now in session.

This hearing is a critical part

of our ongoing investigation of

the fatal mid-air collision

over the Potomac River near

Ronald Reagan

Washington National Airport.

Led by National Transportation

Safety Board Chairwoman

Jennifer Homendy,

the aim is to find out what

went wrong and to prevent it

from happening again.

I'd like to take a moment to

address the families who lost

loved ones in this tragedy.

You have courageously spoken

out and advocated for important

reforms to save lives

and improve aviation safety.

I hope the information that

we uncover during this hearing

will support your efforts.

A key line of inquiry focuses

on the airspace routes

and the volume of traffic

at the airport,

which is one of the busiest

in the United States.

Some of the challenges

associated with the airspace is

the lack of airspace that

we have, so to speak.

Washington National Airport

opened in 1941.

It was never designed to handle

the volume of traffic

seen in the modern era.

[Jeff] Congress wants to have

more nonstop flights

to their constituents

all over the country.

There's been pressure to

increase the amount of airline

flights in and out of Washington

Reagan National Airport.

But the airport really wasn't

designed to handle

that much traffic.

When you start adding low-level

helicopter flights in and out

of this very busy and small

piece of airspace, that's when

the risk goes up

for a collision.

Runway 1 at the airport is

one of the busiest America.

At peak times, there are so

many flights coming in to land

that smaller jets are asked

to divert to Runway 33,

the same runway that

Flight 5342 was heading for.

The area around the airport

also has at least

six helicopter routes.

To prevent collisions in this

cramped airspace,

the helicopter routes are

designed to go under

the flight path of planes

landing at Reagan Airport.

Tim Lilley is a former Army

pilot and has flown the route.

The helicopter routes

around Washington DC

are definitely not

for beginners.

It's a high-workload

environment.

You've got a lot of altitudes

that you need to be on.

The routes have to be

flown precisely.

The route the Black Hawk

helicopter was on, route four,

crossed directly underneath

the approach to Runway 33.

So it's altitude was restricted

to a maximum of 200 feet.

In the view of many experts

and pilots,

the margin between

the landing approach

and the helicopter route

is razor-thin.

[Tim] There's only

75-foot clearance.

The wake turbulence alone

would cause a very disturbing

flight path, it would be like

hitting severe turbulence.

[Jeff] If you have a helicopter

on that route at that time,

while another airliner is

approaching that runway,

then your risk of collision

goes straight up

through the roof.

Analysis of the helicopter's

flight recorder reveals that

it was flying 78 feet above

the limit for route four.

Why?

[Jeff] They don't know whether

or not it was a problem with

the actual sensor that senses

the altitude or from the flight

data recorder that was

recording it.

But it is a possibility that

the Army helicopter crew

may have thought they

were at 200 feet

when in actuality

they were at 278 feet.

The crew of PAT 25 was flying

an older version of

the Black Hawk helicopter

known as a Lima.

[Jeff]

The Lima model has round dials

and more analog instruments.

It's a little harder for pilots

to get situational awareness

looking at the older

instruments

compared to

the new Mike model.

When NTSB experts tested

the altimeters in Black Hawk

helicopters similar to the one

involved in the crash,

they also found the displayed

altitude could be out by

as much as 130 feet.

These helicopters have what

they call instrument error,

in their

barometric altimeters.

So, there are altimeters that

measure the pressure of the air

outside, but if the instrument,

if the sensor, is close to

the rotor blades or close to

a piece of structure, it could

give an erroneous reading

on the altimeter.

But even if the altimeter had

been working perfectly,

some believe it was an accident

waiting to happen.

Humans make errors

every now and then.

So, yes, if you're slightly

higher than 200 feet or if

the airliner is slightly lower,

that's gonna happen.

The system needs to be set up

to allow for those conflicts.

That helicopter route, in

my view, for years was laid out

much too closely to

the final approach course

for Runway 33.

Figures uncovered by

the investigation team reveal

that from 2021 to 2024,

there were more than 15,000

near-miss events around

Reagan National Airport when

a helicopter and a commercial

airliner were less than one

nautical mile from each other.

In the 13 years leading up to

2025, at least one near-miss

per month was close enough to

trigger an urgent collision

warning in the c*ck,

known as a resolution advisory.

The vast majority of

these encounters took place

when approaching the airport.

And two-thirds happened

at night, as was the case

in the 2025 crash.

[Jeff] That should

have been

a giveaway

that there was

a problem here.

And the data was there,

had always been there

for many years before

near-misses were being reported.

But there wasn't a system to

collate all of that data and to

automatically flag an issue.

Even so, the hearings heard

that changes to the route had

been considered prior

to the accident.

The helicopter route

in question in this event,

do you recall anything that

identified route four as being

problematic or conflicting with

regard to your traffic flow

at DCA Airport

Traffic Control Tower?

[Clark] Yes, we had

those discussions.

[Brian] Can you elaborate

on that just a little bit?

It was brought up

with several different options,

either to eliminate a portion

of route four, move route four

over to 295 in Maryland,

and both of those options

we were told we were

unable to do due to

continuity of government

operations or security.

Ultimately, the helicopter

routes remained in place

until the disaster on

January 29th, 2025.

I don't get it.

Every sign was there

that there was

a safety risk and the tower

was telling you that.

But what you did is

you transferred people out

instead of taking ownership

over the fact that everybody in

FAA in the tower was saying

there was a problem.

But you guys are pointing out,

well, our bureaucratic process.

Are you kidding me?

67 people are dead.

How do you explain that?

The near-miss statistics

highlight the seriousness of

the risks that existed in

the busy Washington DC

airspace.

But there are concerns about

the risk of collisions outside

of the nation's capital, too.

As the skies become

more crowded,

what else could be done

to prevent an accident

like the one in Washington DC?

Could new technology

provide the answer?

At Cranfield University

in the UK,

Graham Braithwaite

operates a dedicated

accident investigation

laboratory.

The laboratory contains

evidence from a number of

accidents that we can use

for teaching and for

training investigators.

Studying wreckages like these

is crucial to making the future

of aviation safer.

[Graham] There may be physical

damage or witness marks on that

wreckage that helps us

understand the sequence

of events.

And then from that, we can

look at what we might do in

the future that prevents that

from happening again.

One aircraft in the archive,

a Cessna, is particularly

relevant to the Washington DC

accident.

This Cessna collided with

another light aircraft over

Southern England, resulting in

the death of its pilot.

You can see how the metal has

been torn apart, in this case

by a propeller, as it

slashed through.

So, marks like this give

you an indication that

the two structures have

collided together.

So, as the propellers come

through, these paint transfer

marks can tell you that

there's been that collision.

Investigators concluded that

the pilots did not see

each other until it was

too late to avoid a collision,

similar to

the Washington crash.

Accidents like this have led to

the adoption of Traffic Alert

and Collision

Avoidance Systems, or TCAS.

[Graham] In simple terms, the

way that TCAS works is that

as an aircraft receives a signal

from a transponder on another

aircraft, it will calculate

if there is a collision

likely to happen.

So, if this system detects

another aircraft coming into

the same area of airspace,

then it will give an alert.

In certain situations, TCAS is

also able to instruct pilots on

how to avoid a collision.

The system works best when

both aircraft are equipped.

Where two aircraft are fitted

with TCAS, then those systems

talk to each other and issue

advice such that one aircraft

would climb and the other

aircraft would descend,

and that gives

the greatest chance

of those two aircraft

avoiding a collision.

In Washington DC,

the passenger plane was

equipped with TCAS.

The pilots received a warning

that there was traffic in

the area, but with only

20 seconds left before

the collision, they did not

have enough information to

react in time.

The alert did not provide

an evasive maneuver for

the pilots to take.

It just indicated that there

was another airplane

or aircraft in the area.

TCAS didn't advise

the passenger plane pilots on

how to avoid the collision

because these more detailed

alerts are disabled

at low altitude.

One reason that the system is

designed this way is to reduce

the number of unnecessary

alerts around busy airports.

A nuisance alert is an alert

that TCAS says, "Hey,

you've got traffic close by,"

but of course

you've got traffic.

You've got all kinds of

airplanes landing

and taking off

in this airport.

These so-called nuisance

alerts have been attributed

by some to the age

of the technology.

Current TCAS systems were

developed for use with old

transponders that were much

less advanced than modern ones.

Pilots report that some of

the system's alerts come when

there is no significant risk

of collision.

[Graham] TCAS was the most

incredible innovation.

And there's been many,

many lives saved by collisions

being avoided

by that technology.

Now, it will always have

its limitations, where airspace

becomes so busy that being able

to respond to and react to

warnings becomes difficult.

So, I think as we look to

the future, there needs to be

an enhancement

of that technology.

Recent advances in satellite

technology allow aircraft to be

tracked at a far higher level

of precision than ever before.

Today, many aircraft are

equipped with a tracking

technology called ADS-B.

ADS-B depends upon using

satellites to give us

a very accurate picture of

where an aircraft is in the sky,

but also it offers a solution

that's more affordable

and more portable.

The information that ADS-B

broadcasts to other pilots

and air traffic controllers

provides far more detail about

the aircraft and its movements

than older transponder

technology did.

In Washington,

the passenger plane was using

ADS-B to broadcast

detailed information,

including its precise

position and speed.

The helicopter was also

equipped with an ADS-B system,

but it was switched off

at the time of the accident.

There are times when military

aircraft need to be conspicuous

to be seen by other aircraft.

And clearly there are

other times when they want

to be inconspicuous.

A question for

the investigation will be

whether if the Black Hawk

aircraft had been operating

with its ADS-B function

enabled, would the air traffic

controller have been

better able to see

the potential collision?

As they try to prevent future

accidents, researchers are

harnessing the power of

ADS-B tracking to improve

the reliability of automated

collision alerts.

The FAA now is looking at

something called ACAS-X,

which is like the next level

of TCAS.

It's more accurate,

gives better warnings,

and reduces nuisance alerts.

One of the things that will

help to reduce collision risk

is actually to make sure that

those frontline technologies

that we see, particularly

in commercial aviation,

are available to other

airspace users.

In some cases,

we see a commercial aircraft

that collides with a light

aircraft that just doesn't have

the same level of technology

on board.

But as technology has evolved,

it becomes much more affordable

for those smaller airspace

users to become conspicuous in

the airspace, and that will

make a big difference.

Experts hope that the spread

of new technologies throughout

the aviation world will

eventually make collisions like

the one in Washington

a thing of the past.

But in the near term,

accidents are unlikely to

completely go away.

A recent series of crashes

around populated areas has led

some to ask,

despite the convenience,

is building airports

near cities a good idea?

In America, air travel is still

statistically the safest mode

of transportation.

But the number of commercial

jets is expected to increase

by 30% in the next 20 years.

When accidents do happen,

the risk is not just for those

on board, but also for people

on the ground.

Seven weeks before the hearings

in Washington, another accident

highlights the dangers

of takeoffs and landings

in crowded cities.

[dramatic chord strike]

On June 12, 2025,

Air India Flight 171

is scheduled to make

the 4,000-mile journey

from Ahmedabad in India to

London Gatwick.

On board the Boeing 787

Dreamliner

are 230 passengers

and 12 crew.

[Jeff] It was a hot day,

but it was a clear day.

There wasn't any adverse

thunderstorms or wind

or anything like that.

Everything appears

to be normal.

You can see

the 787 Dreamliner

accelerating down

the runway.

It pitches

up normally,

and it begins

to climb.

But just a few seconds later,

you see it begin to descend.

26 seconds after takeoff,

one of the pilots

issues a mayday.

There are no further

communications

from the aircraft.

[rumbling]

Flight 171 crashed into

a medical college hostel.

-[indistinct yelling]

-[beeping]

The plane was airborne

for 32 seconds,

traveling for less than

two miles before it crashed

into the hostel,

where it broke apart,

scattering wreckage

into several buildings.

19 people on the ground and

241 people aboard the aircraft

are k*lled.

Many more are injured.

It's the world's deadliest

aviation disaster in a decade.

A single passenger survives,

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh,

a British national, was sitting

next to an emergency exit

and managed to climb out

of the wreckage.

Yesterday I was going to

back to London,

and it happened,

everything, yeah.

How do you feel to have

survived this kind of...?

[Vishwash] I can't explain.

This is the first

Boeing 787 Dreamliner to crash.

Investigators must now

determine what caused

Flight 171 to fall to earth

just seconds after takeoff.

Data recovered from the black

box recorders reveals that

three seconds after the plane

leaves the ground,

it reaches a maximum speed

of 207 miles per hour.

But then, the flow of fuel

to the engines stops.

Based on the information

available in the runway report,

it is clear that fuel to

the engines was cut off.

The preliminary report reveals

that in the c*ck, two fuel

switches transitioned from

the run position to cut off.

Once those switches are moved

to cut off, it shuts the fuel

off completely,

and both engines

will begin to spool down.

Ten seconds after the fuel

switches transitioned to

cut off, they moved back

to the run position.

The engines began to restart,

but with the plane rapidly

losing altitude,

it was too late.

It would be difficult to move

these switches accidentally

because each switch, in order

to move it, you have to pull it

out and move it up or down.

According to the preliminary

report, one of the pilots can

be heard on the c*ck

voice recorder asking

the other why he cut off.

The second pilot replies

that he did not.

But a full transcript of

their conversation in

the c*ck has not yet

been released.

We do not know

which pilot said what

or at what time it

was said.

We do not know if those

switches actually

moved physically.

Is there a possibility of

an electric disruption?

We can't rule that out.

It will take many months before

air accident investigators,

assisted by

Boeing engineers,

will release

a final report to determine

the cause of

the Air India crash.

But it highlights how when

an accident happens over

a heavily populated area like

Ahmedabad, the consequences are

particularly grave.

We've proven that it's possible

to operate some of the busiest

airports in the world in

highly urban environments.

And we've managed to do that

with very few accidents that

have led to loss of life

on the ground.

But we can't be complacent

about that.

[Jeff] Our skies are definitely

gonna be getting more

and more crowded.

So yeah, it's gonna put

a strain on the air traffic

management system.

It's not just the airplanes

that have to change,

it's the infrastructure

that's gonna have to change,

better placement of airports.

It's gonna need to be better

design of the airspace

above the airports.

The geographic footprint of

where these airplanes take off

and land is one of many factors

that have to be considered with

the increase of airline travel.

In Washington, almost

12 months after the accident

there, the NTSB reveals

that their report will

be published in 2026.

Now, one year on, has enough

been done to prevent

air crashes in

the immediate future?

Come on.

Come on.

One year after the events of

January 29, 2025 at

Washington National Airport,

Doug Lane is still coming to

terms with what happened.

[barking]

Harley, it's OK, it's OK.

Today he finds solace in

the park where he and his son

spent time with

Christine and Spencer.

The past year, as you might

expect, has been quite a few

periods of ups and downs.

This place is special to me

for a variety of reasons.

As a family, we would often go

boating together right out of

this little cove here, it's

a place where you can kind of

get out into nature a little

bit and also remember some of

the times that

I now look back on

and cherish.

For Doug, there is

a determination to learn

the lessons of what

happened that night.

[Doug] I will say that one of

the aspects of this journey

that's been a great source

of strength is just

the connections that I've made

with other families that have

been affected by this tragedy.

I think we are all, as a family

group, very focused on

making sure

this entire story is told.

In December 2025,

the US government

admitted to

breaching a duty of care to

the passengers of Flight 5342.

It said that the pilots of

the Black Hawk had failed to

maintain vigilance so as to see

and avoid the passenger plane.

The government also conceded

that the air traffic controller

did not comply with procedures

around visual separation.

But it denied negligence,

and that Washington's busy

airspace was an accident

waiting to happen.

American Airlines and PSA

Airlines deny being at fault.

Those affected by the crash

are campaigning for change.

Among them, Tim Lilley,

the father of Flight 5342's

first officer, Sam Lilley.

My son's death cannot

be just a big mistake.

So, his legacy, we're trying

to make sure that

it's aviation safety.

15,000 close encounters between

jet aircraft and helicopters.

Put that in perspective,

one in 62 times

that an aircraft took off

or landed

at Reagan National, they were

too close to a helicopter.

This was the FAA's day job

to get this right and fix that

problem before it happens.

Aviation regulation is

often written in blood.

In this case, it could have

been written in data,

and then we could have

saved the 67 lives

that were lost that night.

Some believe the accident

highlights the need

for upgrades and investment.

[Paul] There's massive systemic

problems with air traffic

control, with our equipment,

with our staffing,

with our facilities throughout

the entire country.

Some of the old computer

terminals are so delicate that

you can't turn them off.

There is literally

a sticky note

that says "Do not turn off,"

from the tech department,

because if you turn it off,

we're not quite sure

it's gonna turn back on.

Today, helicopter route four

remains closed.

New Senate legislation will

require the greater use of

ADS-B tracking for

military flights.

And the House Subcommittee

on Military and Foreign Affairs

has called on

the US Army to provide

clearer guidelines

and enhance training

in complex airspace.

But many are still concerned

at the volume of traffic

over Washington

National Airport.

[Chester]

The increased volume of

air traffic at National Airport,

I think, has lots of

people concerned.

It's not a big airport.

It's very busy.

Adding more flights,

which is proposed,

is not necessarily a good thing.

There's more noise,

there's more congestion,

there's more chance of

something going wrong.

I don't think the changes that

the FAA has made are enough.

It's a really great first step,

but it takes time for them to

make additional changes.

In my view, though, in terms

of aviation safety,

decreasing the amount of

airline traffic in and out of

DCA Airport would be

a very impactful thing to do

to prevent the risk of

another mid-air collision.

The NTSB report is due to

be released in February 2026.

But many feel that the lessons

of January 29th

are already clear.

[Jeff] In the end, this was

a systemic problem.

This was

a preventable accident.

It never should have happened.

These hazards should have been

identified long before

that led to an accident.

[Doug]

When it comes to the outcome

of the investigation, for us,

it's not just about seeing

the recommendations made.

It's about seeing

the recommendations

implemented, and not 20 years

from now, we would like to see

them implemented

as soon as possible.

I think, for all of us,

you know, we're willing

to forgive.

We just want to know what

happened, know what went wrong,

and know what we can do to make

sure it doesn't happen again.

The events of January 29th will

continue to affect all those

who lost loved ones

on board Flight 5342

and helicopter PAT 25.

Many hope this will be

a wake-up call to ensure that

what happened on an icy winter

night in Washington DC

can never happen again.

[orchestral music plays]