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Washington, DC, Plane Crash: Everything We Know So Far


Air traffic controllers asked Flight 5342 to switch runways when coming in to land. Black box recordings from the jet and the military helicopter it collided with will help reveal if this contributed to the accident.

Investigators are scrambling to figure out why a military helicopter and a passenger airplane collided and plunged into the Potomac River in Washington DC late Wednesday, the first major US air crash in 16 years. An Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers apparently plowed into the tail of a Bombardier CRJ-700 jet out of Wichita as it was less than a mile from landing at Reagan National Airport. Air traffic control asked the helicopter if it had seen the aircraft, and was told to “pass behind the CRJ,” which would have had the right of way unless the Black Hawk was on an urgent military mission.

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