On the evening of January 29, 2025, PSA Airlines Flight 5342 (marketed as American Airlines Flight 5342), a Bombardier CRJ700 series airliner, and a U.S. Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter, collided in mid-air over the Potomac River just 0.52 miles from runway 33 of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people on board (64 on the plane, 3 on the helicopter). Flight 5342, a scheduled passenger flight operated by PSA Airlines on behalf of American Airlines, was en route from Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, Kansas, and was on final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The helicopter was on a training flight out of Davison Army Airfield in Fairfax County, Virginia.

PSA Airlines Flight 5342 was operated by a 20-year-old Bombardier CRJ700 series, a regional jet commonly used for short- to medium-haul flights. It was configured as a CRJ701ER, designating a slightly higher seating capacity and extended range. Manufactured in September 2004, it bore the registration number N709PS and had been transferred to PSA Airlines for operations under the American Eagle brand in December 2013 after the merger of US Airways and American Airlines. It had been damaged after hitting a deer at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2017, but was repaired and returned to service. The flight departed Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and was en route to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. No problems were reported when the plane took off from Wichita.

The helicopter involved was a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk registered as 00-26860. The helicopter was configured for use as executive transportation for senior U.S. officials and soldiers, and was flying under the callsign PAT25, indicating a "Priority Air Transport" flight. No senior officials were on board the helicopter. The helicopter, of B Company of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, was on a training flight out of Davison Army Airfield when the collision occurred.

The airliner carried 60 passengers and four crew members; the helicopter had a crew of three military personnel.

The airliner's captain, Jonathan Campos, had worked six years with the airline. The first officer, Samuel Lilley, had worked with the airline for two years. Campos was a native of Brooklyn who lived in Ormond Beach, Florida, and studied at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Lilley was a native of Richmond Hill, Georgia, and graduated from Georgia Southern University and lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Association of Flight Attendants reported that two of its members were on Flight 5342.

The helicopter had a crew of three Army personnel:

• the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves from Noxubee County, Mississippi
• the crew chief, Staff Sergeant Ryan O'Hara, 29, from Gwinnett County, Georgia
• a captain, whose name has not yet been made public at the request of the family.

The airspace around Reagan National Airport is considered to be one of the most difficult areas to fly in because airspace is restricted on both sides of the Potomac River to protect Washington. It is also more congested by the confluence of civilian and military flights in the area. There were efforts made to reduce the congestion of the airspace around the airport, but Congress approved more flights to and from Reagan in 2024.

"Like most of the country's air traffic control facilities, the tower at Reagan airport has been understaffed for years", The New York Times reported on January 30. On the night of the collision, staffing at the tower was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," according to an internal preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety report about the collision that was reviewed by The New York Times. A single controller was handling helicopters in and around the airport and also instructing planes that were landing and departing. "Those jobs typically are assigned to two controllers, rather than one" between 10 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., The New York Times wrote. The duties are normally combined at 9:30 p.m., when traffic has slackened. But on the night of the crash, an air controller supervisor combined the duties sometime before 9:30 p.m., to allow one air traffic controller to leave early.

In the months leading up to the accident, three near-miss incidents were reported at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). These included:

• A March 2023 incident involving a Republic Airways plane that crossed the path of a United Airlines aircraft that was cleared for take off.
• An April 2024 incident involving Southwest Airlines Flight 2937, which was cleared to cross runway 4, while JetBlue Flight 1554 was starting its takeoff roll on the same runway.
• A May 2024 incident where an American Airlines aircraft aborted takeoff to avoid a collision with a private jet that was cleared by air traffic control to land on an intersecting runway.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the near-miss incidents. A February 2023 incident in Austin, Texas, where a FedEx Boeing 767 and a Southwest Airlines flight came within about 115 feet (35 m) of each other after both were cleared for the same runway prompted the FAA to draft new air traffic control policy intended to improve collision-warning systems, hire more controllers, and reduce controller fatigue. Lawmakers had also scheduled hearings to expedite these measures.

FAA administrator Mike Whitaker had resigned on January 20, reportedly as a result of conflict with Elon Musk, and an acting administrator had not yet been named at the time of the crash. At the time of the collision, Chris Rocheleau was the deputy administrator having been sworn in by the Senate the week before, thus being the acting head.

ASAC, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, was formed to improve aviation security after the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988. ASAC primarily counseled the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on aviation security and most of its recommendations over the past 35 years have been implemented. On January 21, 2025, all members were eliminated by President Trump, making the committee defunct. TSA Administrator David Pekoske and U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan were also fired by the second Trump administration. Aviation experts do not believe these personnel changes would have influenced the crash.

Around 8:47 p.m. EST, less than 30 seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter crew if they had the CRJ in sight while multiple CRJs were operating in DCA. The crew confirmed visual contact with an aircraft and requested "visual separation" from the airliner—meaning they would visually acquire and maintain separation from the aircraft on their own—which was approved by the controller. Moments later, the controller instructed the helicopter to pass behind Flight 5342. The two aircraft collided at less than 300 feet (91 m) altitude, with the airplane flying at 128 miles per hour (206 km/h; 111 kn) upon impact, causing the helicopter to explode and crash into the Potomac River. The CRJ700's radio transponder ceased transmitting about 2,400 feet (730 m) short of Runway 33, where the plane intended to land, with the radio transponder providing incorrect data for an extra 1 minute after the crash, as seen on Flightradar24 ADS-B data.

The collision was captured by a webcam at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and another video showed a brief trail of fire. Witnesses reported that the airliner "split in half" upon impact, while the helicopter crashed upside down near the airliner. A pilot in an uninvolved aircraft confirmed seeing the crash to an air traffic controller, and reported seeing flares from the opposite side of the Potomac as his flight was on short final.

The airplane was equipped with a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). However, TCAS generally inhibits its Resolution Advisories (RA) when the airplane is at altitude below 1,000 feet (300 m) above ground level. This precaution is taken to avoid guiding an aircraft into potential collisions with terrain or other aircraft in congested terminal airspace and to reduce pilot cognitive load during critical phases of flight.

Within three hours of the collision, authorities confirmed fatalities. As of 2:50 a.m. the following morning, no survivors had been reported, and search and rescue operations were described as "becoming more grim." Kansas senator Roger Marshall said that all 67 people were presumed dead.

The collision was the deadliest US aviation accident since American Airlines Flight 587 on November 12, 2001, the first fatal accident involving the CRJ700 series since its introduction in 2001, the first fatal accident involving American Airlines since Flight 587, the first fatal accident in the United States involving a commercial aircraft since Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 on April 17, 2018, and the first major crash of a commercial airliner in the United States since Colgan Air Flight 3407 on February 12, 2009. In addition it was the first crash in the Potomac River since Air Florida Flight 90 collided with a bridge before crashing into the river on January 13, 1982. The crash was the second loss of a United States military aircraft in two days, after a United States Air Force F-35 Lightning II fighter jet crashed at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska on January 29.

Emergency personnel, including units from District of Columbia Fire and EMS (DC FEMS), Metropolitan Police Department, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, United States Coast Guard, Maryland State Police, and other assets from local, state, and federal agencies, were dispatched to the scene. According to DC FEMS chief John Donnelly, emergency responders were notified of an aircraft crash at 8:48 p.m. The first units arrived at the scene at 8:58 p.m., where they discovered the aircraft in the water. The fuselage of Flight 5342 was found upside down in three sections in the river and is being recovered. The search for debris was extended to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, 3 mi (5 km) south of Reagan National Airport. A crane used to lift debris during the response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, which happened nearby in Baltimore in March 2024, was brought to help pick up plane wreckage.

Fireboats and divers were deployed to search for victims and survivors. However, rescue efforts were hampered by cold temperatures, strong winds, ice, and murky water conditions. The water temperature near the crash site was recorded at 35 °F (2 °C). Several commercial yachts from CityCruise sailed from Washington Sailing Marina to assist in the search and rescue operations. By Thursday the rescue operation turned into a recovery mission. Officials said that they were confident they would be able to recover all bodies from the aircraft. As of Friday afternoon, 41 bodies, including the three soldiers in the helicopter, have been found and 28 have been positively identified.

After the collision, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport suspended all takeoffs and landings, diverting flights to nearby airports, including Dulles International Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Airport, and Richmond International Airport. The airport remained closed until 11:00 a.m. on January 30.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority extended Silver Line service to help passengers whose flights were diverted to Dulles International Airport and dispatched "warming buses" to help relief operations.

Among the passengers were several U.S. Figure Skating athletes, personnel, and family members returning from a national development camp held in conjunction with the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Coaches traveling as passengers were Russian nationals Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the pair skating gold medalists at the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships, along with Russian three-time figure skating champion and coach Inna Volyanskaya and another Russian coach, Alexandr Kirsanov. As many as 15 passengers may have been affiliated with figure skating. It was the second time members of the U.S. Figure Skating team died in an aviation accident, after the 1961 crash of Sabena Flight 548 in Belgium. A Chilean skater and his father were also on the plane.

Four passengers were members of the D.C.-based UA Steamfitters Local 602 union. Three students and six parents from schools of Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia were aboard the flight. Two passengers were attorneys from a D.C. law firm. Another passenger was a civil rights attorney. A colonel of the Philippine National Police who headed its Supply Management Division was among the fatalities. A Wichita native attending college in Ohio was one of an unknown number of Kansans aboard the flight. Lindsay Fields, the president-elect of the National Association of Biology Teachers, was also on the flight. Two Chinese nationals, a Pakistani, two Polish-American nationals, and an unspecified number of German nationals were also on board the aircraft.

As for the crew of the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, two of the three military officers who were aboard the Black Hawk were identified: the Black Hawk pilot, 39-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves from Noxubee County, Mississippi, and the Black Hawk's crew chief, Staff Sgt. Ryan O'Hara, a 29-year-old from Lilburn, Gwinnett County, Georgia.

On January 31, 2025, the FAA restricted helicopter flights near the airport. The FAA indefinitely closed the helicopter route that the Black Hawk was on when it crashed with the airliner. It also closed another route (called Route 1) that runs south of the Key Bridge in Washington that connects the neighborhood of Georgetown in Washington to Rosslyn in Virginia.

On January 31, 2025, American Airlines retired the flight number of the airliner and stated that the new number for the Wichita to Reagan National flight would be Flight 5677.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the FAA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Army announced they would launch investigations into the collision. The NTSB prepared an investigation team to send to the site of the accident. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also stated it would assist in the response, though there were no indications of terrorism or criminal activity. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) deployed a team of two investigators to assist in the investigation, since the Bombardier CRJ700 was designed and manufactured in Canada.

On the evening of January 30, the flight data recorders ("black boxes") of Flight 5342 were recovered from the wreckage and brought to the NTSB lab for evaluation. The helicopter was also fitted with voice and flight data recorders, which had not yet been found by the morning of January 31.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, in a video statement produced by the airline, said that the pilots flying the airliner were experienced. American Airlines also launched a hotline for family members of passengers on Flight 5342. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the captain of US Airways Flight 1549, argued for the creation of more safety zones as well as more restrictions on flight patterns after the crash.

President Donald Trump was briefed on the collision shortly after it occurred. Shortly after midnight Trump wrote on Truth Social questioning the actions of the air traffic controllers and asserting that the situation could have been prevented. Later that morning Trump released a statement calling the crash a "terrible accident", thanking emergency responders and saying of the victims: "May God bless their souls."

In later remarks during a White House press conference, Trump alleged that FAA diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals by former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama may have been partly to blame for the crash. During a reporter's questioning, Trump agreed that it was still too early in the investigation, but he was sure DEI was to blame "because I have common sense", and claimed that the FAA under Obama "actually came out with a directive, too white". Trump criticized the FAA for being open to hire people with "hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism". This was a policy introduced in 2019 by the former Trump administration's FAA, which announced a program to allow 20 people with "targeted disabilities" (as mentioned by Trump above) to train at air traffic control centers for air traffic operations careers, however, several of the listed disabilities such as epilepsy were still disqualifying per FAA regulations which require employees to have 20/20 vision in each eye, no hearing disabilities and meet stringent health requirements. A policy in 2013 by Obama only encouraged the hiring of minorities. Trump administration officials also criticized diversity policies on January 30, agreeing with Trump's claim that such policies may have caused the crash. Vice president JD Vance said, "When you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means on the one hand, you're not getting the best people in government. But on the other hand, it puts stresses on the people who are already there." Sean Duffy, the United States Secretary of Transportation, said, "We can only accept the best and the brightest in positions of safety", while Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of Defense, said, "The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department and we need the best and brightest", including in "our air traffic control". White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated Trump's claim by stating that it was "common sense" to blame DEI initiatives for the crash.

Duffy also said, "What I've seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely". Hegseth also said that the helicopter crew were 'fairly experienced", and undergoing "routine annual retraining—night flights on a standard [flight] corridor for a continuity-of-government mission".

Kansas Senators Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran said that they were communicating with authorities about the collision. Don Beyer, U.S. representative for Virginia's 8th congressional district, where the airport is located, said he was in contact with airport officials about the crash.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin stated that first responders from Northern Virginia were being sent to help recovery efforts. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly stated that she was in contact with authorities about the collision. Maryland Governor Wes Moore raised Maryland's Emergency Operations Center status to "Enhanced" to help recovery operations.

Social media users quickly misidentified the pilot as Warrant Officer Jo Ellis, a trans woman helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard; however a subsequent statement from the National Guard disproved this, saying that there were no Virginia National Guard personnel aboard the helicopter.

A vigil was held at the Wichita City Council chambers in memory of the victims.

Trump received pushback for his claims that DEI initiatives were to blame for the crash, including by former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, whom Trump criticized in his address. Buttigieg stated that Trump's claims were "despicable" and that he should be "leading, not lying". Representative Ilhan Omar criticized Trump for "blaming this deadly crash on minorities and white women" and that the comments were "disgusting, racist and sexist". Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also criticized Trump's remarks, calling them "idle speculation". Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen criticized Trump by stating that he was "making a political show out of this awful tragedy" about the crash. Sully Sullenberger responded to Trump by stating that "an airplane cannot know or care" about a pilot's race or gender but can only care about "what the control inputs are". Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut stated that Trump was "blaming Black people and blaming women who work at the FAA without any evidence." Representative Jesús "Chuy" García of Illinois stated that Trump was "exploiting disaster to continue to spread racist lies and divisiveness across the country".

The International Olympic Committee said they "extend their heartfelt sympathies to all those affected, which we understand may include Olympians, young athletes, and their support staff." At the 2025 European Figure Skating Championships, which had begun the morning of the collision, a moment of silence was observed to mourn the figure skaters and family members lost. The International Skating Union and many international skating federations also offered their condolences.

Pope Francis personally sent a telegram to the White House expressing condolences for the victims of the collision. The Russian Embassy in the United States sent condolences to the families of the Russian nationals who died in the crash. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered his condolences "to [the] grieving family members and loved ones who are facing unimaginable loss" and support of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada throughout the investigation. The Brazilian government, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, paid its condolences to the accident. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences, extending sympathies to the victims' families and reaffirming India's solidarity with the United States.

• 2025 in aviation
• List of accidents involving sports teams
• List of mid-air collisions
• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport accidents and incidents

• Media related to 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision at Wikimedia Commons
• Playback of Flight AA5342 – Flightradar24
• KDCA Tower, KDCA Tower/Approach, and Helicopter ATC Audio Archive – LiveATC
• Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Audio Archive – Broadcastify