Air traffic controller left early from work before crash: report

The work of handling aerial postulation power for helicopters and incoming planes astatine Reagan National Airport were combined connected Wednesday nighttime up of a deadly collision, a study said.

Sometime earlier an American Airlines formation crashed into an Army Black Hawk chopper implicit the Potomac River, an aerial postulation controller was assigned some duties by their supervisor, the New York Times reported, citing a root briefed connected staffing and an interior preliminary FAA information report.

Usually, the duties of handling chopper postulation and managing planes are divided from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. astatine the airport, the Times reported. After 9:30 p.m., erstwhile postulation slows down, those duties whitethorn beryllium combined.

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A wide presumption of Reagan National Airport successful Arlington, Virginia connected Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. An American Airlines formation from Wichita, Kansas collided with a Black Hawk chopper portion approaching the airdrome for landing past night. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)

However, connected Wednesday, an aerial postulation power supervisor combined those duties sometime earlier 9:30 p.m. and allowed 1 aerial postulation controller to permission the occupation early, the Times reported.

The FAA preliminary information study recovered that staffing astatine the airdrome was "not mean for the clip of time and measurement of traffic," The Associated Press reported.

The FAA did not reply questions astir the reports that an aerial postulation controller near early.

"Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has 25 Certified Professional Controllers and 3 Certified Professional Controllers successful Training (CPC-ITs).  CPC-ITs were antecedently afloat certified astatine different facilities. The operation is authorized to person 28 controllers," and FAA spokesperson said. 

Despite the study saying the staffing was "not normal," a idiosyncratic acquainted with the substance told Fox News Digital that staffing successful the control operation astatine DCA connected Wednesday nighttime was astatine a mean level.

STAFFING AT REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT AIR CONTROL TOWER WAS ‘NOT NORMAL’ ON NIGHT OF COLLISION: FAA

Graphic shows a timeline of the level clang adjacent Reagan National Airport adjacent Washington, D.C. (Fox News)

The idiosyncratic explained that the positions get combined regularly if aerial controllers person to measurement distant from the console for breaks, oregon if they are progressive successful a displacement change. Controllers whitethorn besides person to measurement distant erstwhile aerial postulation is slow, the idiosyncratic explained, speaking connected information of anonymity to sermon interior procedures.

Supervisors person the quality to harvester roles, which was the lawsuit connected Wednesday night, though the idiosyncratic acquainted with the substance could not accidental why. When asked astir the aerial postulation and erstwhile reports of it being dense connected Wednesday night, the root said it was moderate.

Emergency effect units hunt the clang tract of the American Airlines level connected the Potomac River aft the level crashed past nighttime connected attack to Reagan National Airport connected Jan. 30, 2025 successful Arlington, Va. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

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The aerial power operation astatine Reagan National has been understaffed for years with 19 afloat certified controllers arsenic of September 2023. However, staffing targets acceptable by the FAA and the controllers’ national telephone for 30.

The origin of the shortage has been attributed to worker turnover and different factors similar choky budgets, and ultimately, it has resulted successful galore controllers moving 10-hour days and arsenic galore arsenic six days a week, the New York Times reported.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.