Expert Pilot Explains What Went Wrong In Mid-Air Collision Over The Potomac
A passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair over the Potomac River on Wednesday night, crashing near Reagan National Airport. Officials confirmed Thursday that there were no survivors.
President Trump confirmed the loss, writing on Truth Social, “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time.
“It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane,” Trump asked Wednesday night. “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.”
Aviation experts have since been poring over air traffic control (ATC) transcripts, flight data, and eyewitness accounts to determine how such a catastrophic event occurred in controlled airspace near one of the nation’s busiest airports.
According to Dominic Nicholls, a former British Army pilot, if reconstructions of the event are accurate, the passenger aircraft had been given clearance to land on Runway 33—a standard procedure that should have ensured a safe approach.
Critically, in controlled airspace, once a pilot is cleared for landing, that aircraft has the right of way. Any other aircraft in the vicinity, including the Black Hawk, is responsible for maneuvering to avoid a collision.
ATC transcripts released so far indicate that the helicopter crew was directed to visually identify the jet and pass behind it. “PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller said at 8:47 p.m. Wednesday.
Moments later, the two aircraft collided.
“The helicopter should therefore have given way to the passenger jet,” Nicholls wrote for The Telegraph. “The crew of the Black Hawk should also have sought permission from ATC to ‘cross the active’, meaning to fly over the active runway and an imaginary line extended from that runway out to the ATC zone limits.”
He explained the significance of the right-of-way rule in aviation. Outside controlled airspace, when two aircraft approach head-on, the aircraft to the right has priority, allowing pilots to take appropriate evasive action. This principle is reinforced by navigation lights—one wing red, the other green—providing a visual cue for decision-making.
But in controlled airspace, landing aircraft are given priority. That means the Black Hawk should have yielded.
Another crucial factor is the procedure known as “crossing the active”, where pilots must obtain explicit clearance before flying across an active runway or its extended approach path. So far, there is no evidence that the Black Hawk received such clearance.
While military helicopters routinely operate at night, visual clearances for “pass-behind” maneuvers are more commonly executed during daylight hours. It remains unclear why the Black Hawk’s crew failed to respond to ATC instructions or why they were in a position where such a dangerous encounter became possible.
With no survivors to provide firsthand accounts, investigators will rely on flight data recorders, radar tracking, and audio transmissions to reconstruct the moments leading up to the disaster.
As search crews continue recovery operations in the Potomac, many victims have yet to be publicly identified. Families are left waiting for answers, and experts are left wondering how a routine flight path turned into a national tragedy.
