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Arthur Rosenberg to Newsmax: Looks Like Air Traffic Controller Erred

By    |   Friday, 31 January 2025 03:49 PM EST

It appears as if the air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport made the wrong decision Wednesday, aviation attorney and former pilot Arthur Rosenberg told Newsmax on Friday.

American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., sending the two aircraft into the Potomac River and killing all 67 aboard in the deadliest U.S. air crash in more than two decades.

"Accidents like this never happen for any one particular cause," Rosenberg said on "Newsline." "The American Airlines flight was vectored from the original runway, runway 1 to the shorter runway 33. That brought them farther north. That brought them more into the path of the oncoming Black Hawk helicopter.

"The Black Hawk helicopter was at least 100 feet above the floor of that zone. They're not supposed to stay under 200 feet, and they were also a half a mile outside of the corridor that they were supposed to be in.

"The flight control, while all this was going on, was concerned about getting one plane off and one plane on landing and take-off onto that runway. That runway, runway 1, is the busiest runway in America and, at the same time, monitoring what was going on with the Black Hawk helicopter.

"It's a lot for one person to do. And normally there are two people to do it. One person can do it. Who made that decision inside the tower? The on-watch FAA crew chief? All this is going to be investigated. As a plaintiff's lawyer, it certainly looks to me like they made the wrong decision."

The regional jet out of Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew, was preparing to land. The UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia was on a training exercise carrying three soldiers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Skies were clear.

A few minutes before the Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 series twin-engine jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked Flight 5342 if it could use a shorter runway. The pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the landing. Flight-tracking sites show the plane adjusted its approach to the new runway.

Less than 30 seconds before the collision an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the plane in sight. The military pilot responded yes.

Moments later the controller made another call to the helicopter, apparently telling the helicopter to wait for the jet to pass. There was no reply.

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Solange Reyner

Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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It appears as if the air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport made the wrong decision Wednesday, aviation attorney and former pilot Arthur Rosenberg told Newsmax on Friday.
air traffic controller, plane, crash, arthur rosenberg
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2025-49-31
Friday, 31 January 2025 03:49 PM
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