How could a state-of-the-art U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter with an “experienced” crew of three soldiers fly directly into a commercial jet just outside Washington?
Investigators began zeroing in on that question hours after the Sikorsky H-60 chopper collided with a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional airliner near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night. All 64 people aboard the plane are presumed dead, officials said, as are the three Army personnel flying the helicopter in what the Pentagon described as an annual “proficiency training” flight.
Government investigators were in the early stages of their work Thursday when President Trump, newly minted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other federal officials seemingly began to assign blame to the military.
Aviation analysts said the commercial plane appeared to be making a standard landing approach to the airport after air traffic controllers told the pilot to shift to a new runway, putting all the more focus on the maneuvering of the military aircraft.
Regardless of the specifics, the incident is the latest in a series of high-profile crashes involving U.S. military aircraft worldwide. Officials, including the commander in chief, said this could have been prevented.
“You had a helicopter that had the ability to stop. I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down,” Mr. Trump said during a White House press conference, giving voice to the bewilderment of those who watched footage of the crash and struggled to explain the helicopter’s actions.
Mr. Trump’s position that the helicopter appeared to be at fault in one way or another matches video accounts that spread across social media and TV news late Wednesday and throughout Thursday. Despite warnings from air traffic controllers, the military aircraft appears to have flown directly into the jet, causing a fireball and sending the remnants of both aircraft into the frigid Potomac River.
The incident provides an immediate test for Mr. Hegseth, the military veteran and former Fox News host who has been on the job as defense secretary for less than a week. He faced intense criticism from Democrats who said he was not qualified for the job.
On Thursday morning, Mr. Hegseth tried to embrace his role as the face of the Pentagon. He posted updates on the situation on social media and later appeared alongside Mr. Trump at the White House. Like the president, Mr. Hegseth spoke of a “mistake” on the military side.
Mr. Hegseth described the mission as “routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity-of-government mission.” He said all three soldiers on the helicopter were “fairly experienced” and were using night-vision goggles at the time of the crash.
“We anticipate that the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor and at the right altitude at the time of the incident,” Mr. Hegseth said. “It’s a tragedy. A horrible loss of life for those 64 souls on that civilian airliner and, of course, the three soldiers in that Black Hawk.
“There was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DoD and Army level,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Army CID is on the ground investigating. Top-tier aviation assets inside the [Defense Department] are investigating to get to the bottom of it so it does not happen again because it’s absolutely unacceptable.”
SEE ALSO: Reagan National Airport has a long history of problems, challenges
Army CID is the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. Its presence underscores the seriousness of the situation.
Defense Department officials said the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration will investigate in cooperation with the Army.
Flying out of Belvoir
The Black Hawk, officials said, was from the 12th Aviation Battalion at Davison Army Airfield out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
The helicopter is made by Sikorsky, a company now owned by Lockheed Martin, a leading defense and aerospace giant. Black Hawks became well known in American pop culture because of the book and film “Black Hawk Down,” which told the story of two namesake choppers shot down in Mogadishu, Somalia, during a 1993 U.S. military mission.
Mr. Hegseth revealed that the 12th Aviation Battalion had been granted a 48-hour “operational pause” because of the crash.
Officials say military personnel conducting training flights in and around the heavily restricted airspace over the nation’s capital must familiarize themselves with local landmarks and travel patterns and stay current on continuity measures in the event of a major governmental crisis.
Wednesday night’s collision is the latest in a line of military aircraft accidents, some with deadly consequences.
One of the most high-profile cases was the 2023 crash of an Air Force CV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft off the coast of Japan, killing all eight service members aboard. Investigators said it resulted from a “catastrophic failure” of the troubled craft’s gearbox and the pilot’s decision not to land immediately in response to warnings in the cockpit.
Osprey flights were grounded again last year after another near crash in New Mexico. The Ospreys were recently cleared to resume flights.
Just this week, an F-35 fighter jet crashed during a training exercise at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. In 2023, an F-35 fighter jet flew unmanned for 11 minutes before it crashed in rural South Carolina. Investigators said the pilot prematurely ejected from the aircraft.
In October, two Navy aviators died in a jet crash near Mount Rainier in Washington.
• Vaughn Cockayne and Matt Delaney contributed to this report.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.