Why WAS a runway change ordered minutes before the DC crash? Is DEI really to blame? Did air traffic control make a fatal mistake? All the lingering unanswered questions

It was a clear, acold nighttime successful Washington DC connected January 29, erstwhile astatine 8.47 pm, a agleam orangish and reddish occurrence abruptly erupted successful the sky.

A disturbing video – present seen by millions – showed the explosive collision betwixt a commuter pitchy and a US subject chopper supra the Potomac River adjacent to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

Voice recordings of aerial postulation controllers archer of the horror.

'Crash, crash, crash,' 1 tin beryllium heard saying. 'This is an alert three.'

'I conscionable saw a fireball and past it was gone,' said another.

By aboriginal Thursday morning, the quality was bleak. Nearly 30 bodies person been recovered from the icy stream water. Of each the 67 souls progressive successful the clang (60 passengers and 4 unit connected the level and 3 pilots connected the chopper), determination were nary expected survivors.

Now comes the probe – and unanswered questions abound.

Flight 5342 was a Bombardier CRJ700 operated by American Eagle Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines. And the level was making its last attack to DCA aft a 2 hr and 45-minute non-stop formation from Wichita, Kansas.

The Army chopper – a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk – had taken disconnected from Fort Belvoir, a basal adjacent Langley, Virginia, astir 16 miles from the clang site.

Both craft present prevarication successful waist-deep water, wherever investigators are pouring implicit the debris, searching for clues of what whitethorn person caused the deadliest aviation catastrophe successful much than 15 years.

Similarly, the over-riding interest of the bereaved – and Americans successful wide – is however connected world this could person happened. Here, the Daily Mail explores immoderate of the cardinal questions the clang raises:

Did the Black Hawk pilots not spot Flight 5342?

Regional commuter planes are typically fitted with strobe and navigation lights connected the wingtips (red connected the left, greenish connected the right) and a achromatic airy connected the tail. A flashing reddish beacon connected the apical of the fuselage is designed to alert different craft successful the area. And, often upon landing, a spotlight is illuminated.

With each these signals blazing, 1 wonders however an Army chopper unit could not person seen the commuter plane. Indeed, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the chopper unit was 'fairly experienced' and was adjacent utilizing night-vision goggles.

Though, President Donald Trump speculated astatine a White House briefing of Thursday that specified instrumentality tin really impair a aviator by narrowing their tract of vision.

'It whitethorn alteration your view... if you bash person the nighttime vision,' Trump said. 'That would beryllium possibly a crushed wherefore you wouldn't really spot arsenic good connected a wide night.'

A erstwhile Army Black Hawk aviator offered different explanation, telling the Mail that the lights of a level tin easy beryllium mislaid successful the glare of a cityscape similar Washington DC.

What caused the DCA aerial postulation power failure?

Newly confirmed US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced successful that White House briefing attended by President Trump that Flight 5342 and the Black Hawk were traveling on well-known formation paths.

'This was not antithetic with a subject craft flying the stream and craft landing astatine DCA,' Duffy said, portion adding that the mishap was 'absolutely' preventable.

A preliminary Federal Aviation Administration information study released Thursday recovered that staffing successful the DCA power operation was 'not mean for the clip of time and measurement of traffic' astatine the clip of the crash.

The FAA is besides presently leaderless. Now erstwhile FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker resigned the time earlier Trump took office, adjacent though his five-year word would person ended successful October 2028.

A signaling of the DCA aerial postulation controllers speech with the Black Hawk uncover the controller asked the pilots if they saw Flight 5342 little than 30 seconds earlier the crash.

President Trump noted that is not capable warning.

After the detonation lit up the sky, they and their colleagues tin beryllium heard asking, 'Did you spot that?'

Did Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies play a relation successful the crash?

On Thursday, Tennessee Republican congressman Andy Ogles raised the proposition that DEI policies, including hiring preferences for non-white and disabled candidates whitethorn person contributed to the collision.

'I deliberation you person to look astatine this with eyes wide open, spot what happened,' Ogles said connected the Fox Business Network. 'Human error. Was it immoderate benignant of instrumentality failure? Did DEI play a relation successful this benignant of thing?'

President Trump addressed the DEI contented himself astatine the White House briefing.

'[The crash] conscionable could person been [caused by DEI policies],' helium said. 'You person to spell by intelligence quality, and intelligence prime is simply a precise important constituent of it. These are various, precise almighty tests that we enactment to use. And they were terminated by Biden. And Biden went by a modular that seeks the nonstop opposite.'

Why didn't Flight 5342's aboriginal informing systems forestall the crash?

Questions person been raised astir the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System fitted connected commercialized airliners.

The bundle creates a 3D representation of the airspace and continuously scans the country to stitchery information from transponders of adjacent aircrafts. It alerts pilots if different craft is dangerously close.

However, TCAS has immoderate limitations. Below 1,000 feet, the strategy is little delicate to imaginable threats truthful arsenic not to distract pilots during landing. The clang occurred beneath 300 feet.

Why was a subject chopper successful DCA airspace?

A erstwhile Army serviceman, who spoke to the Mail connected information of anonymity, raised questions implicit the contented of grooming missions successful proximity to the airport.

'Even arsenic acold arsenic the grooming goes, I can't deliberation of thing they would person been doing,' said the erstwhile Blackwater operative, who besides completed respective tours of Afghanistan and Iraq. 'Training isn't usually done successful specified precocious postulation areas.'

Defense Secretary Hegseth said Thursday that the Black Hawk was participating successful a 'routine yearly grooming of nighttime flights connected a modular corridor for a continuity of authorities mission' which refers to preparations to support the authorities functioning successful lawsuit of a large catastrophe oregon attack.

He added 'The subject does unsafe things.'

As to the 3 subject unit connected committee the helicopter, the Army has lone released the sanction of the Black Hawk unit main Ryan O'Hara, a father-of-one.

Why did DCA aerial postulation power o.k. a last-minute runway change?

A fewer minutes earlier Flight 5342 was owed to interaction down connected runway 1, the longest of DCA's 3 runways, aerial postulation controllers asked the pilots to alteration course. And the American Airlines formation was directed to onshore connected the shorter runway 33.

Flight tracking sites showed the level adjusted its attack to the caller runway – putting the craft connected its eventual collision people with the Black Hawk.

Retired Air Force Brigadier General John Teichert told NewsNation that this alteration unsocial shouldn't person caused a crash. 'I deliberation that portion they would person been told to power runways, it's not this assertive maneuver successful a determination pitchy that would punctual them to reposition and beryllium a astonishment to the Black Hawk,' helium said.

The crushed for the runway alteration is unknown.

Did mediocre aerial postulation controller instructions origin the accident?

An aerial postulation power seasoned of 23 years' experience, present retired, listened to the aerial postulation controller's instructions to the Black Hawk and raised superior concerns with the Mail.

The source, who asked to stay anonymous, called the DCA power operation instructions 'very ambiguous.'

The signaling reveals however DCA controllers asked the Black Hawk pilots, 'PAT25 [The helicopter's telephone sign], bash you person the CRJ successful sight?' The aerial postulation controller past tells the chopper aviator to 'pass behind' the American Airlines jet.

'Whenever you springiness directions to radical we usage the 12 points connected a clock. Let's accidental 12 o'clock is northbound if I say, 'Look to your 9 o'clock' that would mean look to your near oregon to the west,' the Mail's root said.

'So if I had a chopper that was coming into my airspace and I wanted him to spot an airplane I would accidental "PAT 25 traffic, 9 o'clock, 3 miles determination pitchy inbound to the airport."'

Who are the victims?

The Daily Mail exclusively identified the deceased unit arsenic pilots Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Samuel Lilley, 29. They died alongside formation attendants Ian Epstein, 34, and Danasia Elder, 29. Danasia had precocious gotten engaged.

Other victims connected the formation – the lone nonstop way betwixt the 2 airports regular - included 14 fig skaters. The athletes had participated successful the National Development Camp astatine the US Figure Skating Championships successful Wichita, US Figure Skating confirmed to The New York Post.

Six skaters were members of The Skating Club of Boston, including 2 teens, Spencer Lane, 16 – who had snapped a photograph of the level successful formation ---and Jinna Han, 13. Christine Lane, 49, and Jin Han, 49, their respective mothers, besides died. The pair's Russian coaches were besides connected board: Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56, who had go satellite champions successful 1994.