The Air Current
Will Guisbond
18 Dec 2025
Nearing the end of its routine flight from the midwest, a regional jet prepared to land on Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s (DCA) Runway 1 when an air traffic controller instructed the pilots to instead change to Runway 33 — a “circling” procedure sometimes used during congested periods at the airport.
At the same time, a military helicopter was transiting DCA’s airspace using a helicopter route along the Potomac River that crossed the approach path for Runway 33. Over a radio frequency used exclusively by helicopters to communicate with air traffic control, the pilot was instructed to maintain visual separation: keep the jet in sight and maneuver to stay well clear of it.
As the jet descended on approach, the distance between the two aircraft — now at the exact same altitude — narrowed to less than a thousand feet. The controller asked the helicopter multiple times to confirm it had the nearby traffic in sight and then instructed the helicopter to “pass behind” the regional jet.
Moments later, the airliner aborted its landing, narrowly avoiding a collision. The DCA tower controller, while attempting to deconflict the two aircraft, had accidentally turned the helicopter in the wrong direction.
It was May 24, 2013. Both aircraft landed safely.
More than a decade later, a nearly identical scenario in the exact same location would result in the deaths of 67 people. On Jan. 29, 2025, an American Eagle CRJ700 operating as PSA Airlines Flight 5342 was circling for the same runway when it collided with a U.S. Army 12th Aviation Battalion UH-60L Black Hawk conducting a night vision goggle evaluation flight on the same helicopter route over the icy waters of the Potomac.
Many of the issues that created the circumstances for the close call in 2013 — including fundamentally flawed airspace that left the controller with a razor-thin margin for error — persisted on the night of Jan. 29. That earlier close call was not caused by a singular human act, and neither was the crash that became the first major U.S. commercial air safety disaster in 16 years.
Special Report: The night everything at DCA finally went wrong - The Air Current -18 Dec 2025
