What we know about the deadly air crash between a passenger jet and a US Army helicopter

A congressional hearing Thursday reinforced the idea that the January midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft could have been prevented.

The Federal Aviation Administration already had data showing an alarming number of close calls around Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., but didn’t spot the trend. The agency’s acting administrator promised improvement and said the agency will complete a review of data from other airports with heavy helicopter traffic within the next couple weeks.

Investigators are still in the early stages of determining why the jetliner and helicopter collided as the plane prepared to land Jan. 29. The final report likely won't be ready until sometime next year.

Here's a look at the collision:

American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members as it approached to land on a clear night. Nearby, the Army Black Hawk, with three soldiers on board, was practicing emergency evacuation routes that would be used to ferry out key government officials in an emergency.

Investigators have said the helicopter crew was wearing night-vision goggles that would have limited their peripheral vision.

A few minutes before the twin-engine jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked if it could use a shorter runway. The pilots agreed, and flight-tracking sites show the plane turned to adjust its approach. The FAA has since permanently banned that particular helicopter route when planes are using that runway.

Shortly before the collision, a controller got an alert saying the plane and Black Hawk were converging and asked the helicopter if it had the jet in sight. The military pilot said yes and asked for “visual separation” with the jet for a second time, allowing it to fly closer than if the pilots couldn't see the plane.

Controllers approved the request roughly 20 seconds before the collision.

The National Transportaty Safety Board has said there were 85 dangerous close calls between planes and helicopters near Reagan National in the three years before the crash, and collision alarms had been ordering pilots to take evasive action at least once a month since 2011.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters last month that the Black Hawk's cockpit recorder suggested an incomplete radio transmission may have left the crew unable to hear air traffic control tell them, just before the crash, to move behind the jet. She said the crew was unable to hear the words “pass behind the” because its microphone key was pressed.

The radio altitude of the helicopter was 278 feet (85 meters) at the time, which would put it above its 200-foot (61-meter) limit for that location.

Cockpit conversations a few minutes before the crash indicate that the crew may not have had accurate altitude readings, with the helicopter’s pilot calling out that they were at 300 feet (91 meters) but the instructor pilot saying 400 feet (122 meters), Homendy said.

That generation of Black Hawks typically has two types of altimeters: one relying on barometric pressure and the other on radio frequency signals bounced off the ground. Helicopter pilots typically rely on barometric readings while flying, but the helicopter’s black box captures its radio altitude.

Almost immediately after the crash, President Donald Trump faulted the helicopter for flying too high. He also blamed federal diversity and inclusion efforts, particularly regarding air traffic controllers. When pressed by reporters, the president could not back up those claims. A few days later, he blamed an “obsolete” air traffic control system.

The Army identified the Black Hawk crew as Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, 28, of Durham, North Carolina; Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland. O’Hara was the crew chief, and Eaves and Lobach were pilots.

Among the jet’s passengers were several members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from a development camp for elite junior skaters that followed the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. A figure skating tribute event in Washington raised $1.2 million for the crash victims' families.

Others included a group of hunters returning from a guided trip in Kansas; four members of a steamfitters’ union in suburban Maryland; nine students and parents from schools in Fairfax County, Virginia; and two Chinese nationals.

A string of recent crashes and a near miss have brought attention to air travel, which remains overwhelmingly safe.

On Jan. 31 a medical transport jet crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven. On Feb. 6 a small commuter aircraft went down off western Alaska, killing 10. On Feb. 17, a Delta plane crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto but everyone survived. Two small planes collided in midair in Arizona on Feb. 19, killing two people.

And there was a scary moment Feb. 25 in Chicago when a Southwest Airlines plane came within 200 feet of crashing into another plane crossing the runway before it aborted its landing to avoid it.

The Washington collision was the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. since 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five more on the ground.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, stands next to map showing flight restrictions as the Senate Transportation Subcommittee holds a hearing to examine the preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board on the Jan. 29, 2024, midair collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, director of Army Aviation, center, answers questions, joined from left by Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, and Chris Rocheleau, acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, as the Senate Transportation Subcommittee holds a hearing to examine the preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board on the Jan. 29, 2025, midair collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - A crane offloads a piece of wreckage from a salvage vessel onto a flatbed truck, near the wreckage site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Feb. 5, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - A piece of wreckage is lifted from the water onto a salvage vessel near the site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Feb. 4, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

FILE - Rescue and salvage crews pull up a part of a Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided midair with an American Airlines jet, at a wreckage site in the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Feb. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a new domestic security chief, after he moved to fire the current one over a crisis of confidence that critics say was politically motivated.

Netanyahu on Monday nominated former Navy commander Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit to lead the agency, which surveils and thwarts attacks from Palestinian militant groups.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu moved to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, a step that sparked an uproar in Israel. Netanyahu said he lost faith in Bar over Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and disagreements over ceasefire negotiations.

But critics said the dismissal undermined Israel’s independent state institutions and came at a problematic time, as Bar and the agency were investigating links between the Gulf state of Qatar and close advisers to Netanyahu.

Israel’s High Court froze Bar’s dismissal pending further hearings but cleared the way for Netanyahu to interview candidates for the job.

Here's the latest:

A former Israeli hostage who learned upon his release that his wife and two young children were killed in captivity in Gaza called on U.S. President Donald Trump to bring an end to the war in Gaza.

In his first media interview since being freed in a ceasefire last month, Yarden Bibas told CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday that Trump was “the only one” who can convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas to halt the renewed fighting.

He said as a hostage, as he was held in Hamas’ underground tunnels, Israeli strikes were terrifying. “You’re afraid for your life,” he said. “Everything could collapse at any moment.” He said his captors, who had taunted him over his family’s fate, told him “you’ll get a new wife. New kids. Better wife. Better kids.”

“Please stop the war and help bring all the hostages back,” Bibas called on Trump.

The United Nations has released footage from the operation to recover 15 first responders killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

The footage released Sunday showed members of the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, exhuming a body from a mound of sand. The body was wearing the same orange vest as the rescuers.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called it the deadliest attack on its workers since 2017.

Israel said its forces opened fire on several vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights or emergency signals. The military said a Hamas operative and eight other militants were among those killed.

The United Nations humanitarian office said eight Red Crescent workers, six members of the Civil Defense and a U.N. worker were killed.

The shooting occurred when Israeli forces launched a surprise ground incursion into the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah on March 23.

Hassan Abu Sultan mourns over the body of her son Jehad, who, along with his wife and three children, was killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent, as heir bodies lie on the floor at a hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, awaiting burial on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners walk by the bodies of the Abu Sultan family, killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent before their burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

In this image made from a video released by the Israeli Government Press Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Israeli Government Press Office via AP)