American Airlines CEO blames military helicopter for DC plane crash as near misses & flight path tracker add to mystery

THE CEO of American Airlines has blamed a military helicopter for the devastating midair collision that killed 64 people in Washington DC.

Officials have no clear answer as to why an American Airlines passenger jet and a Black Hawk military helicopter crashed in a fatal incident on Wednesday night.

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All people onboard the American Airlines plane, 60 passengers and four crew members, are believed to be dead. At least 30 bodies have been recovered from the horrific scene in the Potomac River.

“At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said on Thursday morning.

Video of the helicopter's flight path on a tracker website sparked concern online as it was seen flying near three other aircraft right before the crash.

Some even called the Black Hawk's movement "erratic" as it curved to fly along the river and appeared to nearly intersect multiple planes.

However, pilots shot down claims those moments were near misses.

Experts online said there would have been "significant" vertical separation between the helicopter and the other planes it passed before the crash.

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It comes as...

• All 64 passengers are feared dead
•  At least 28 bodies pulled from the Potomac River
•  CCTV captures moment of the crash
•  Chilling audio reveals the final moments of flight
•  World champion figure skaters believed to be on board
•  Figure skater shared now-tragic picture inside the plane
•  Another skater barely dodged the flight
•  Husband reveals wife's final text from doomed jet
•  Rescue efforts hindered by freezing & dark conditions

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The difference in altitude between the aircraft causing speculation isn't immediately clear in the flight tracker videos.

The area over the Ronald Reagan National Airport is a notoriously crowded airspace as the Federal Aviation Administration investigated at least three near-misses in recent years.

In May 2024, an American Airlines jet preparing for takeoff almost collided with a King Air plane arriving nearby.

In another incident, JetBlue and Southwest planes nearly crashed on a runway.

FAA investigated both of the incidents.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the helicopter and plane were traveling normal routes for the area.

"Prior to the collision, the flight paths that were being flown, from the military and from American, that was not unusual for what happens in the D.C. airspace," Duffy said.

"This happens every day," he added.

"Something went wrong here."

President Donald Trump also suggested the military helicopter might be at fault in a post on Truth Social.

"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport," Trump wrote on Truth Social early Thursday morning.

"The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time.

"It is a clear night, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn," he said, adding that it "looks like it should have been prevented."

The president later said at a press conference on Thursday he heard the audio tapes of the pilots on the American Airlines flight and that they did everything right.

'WAKE-UP CALL'

Instead of blaming the helicopter or the American Airlines pilots, an aviation expert pointed the finger at the FAA's "bad management."

"This is a problem we have with air traffic control," Boyd Group International President Mike Boyd said on Fox Business' Mornings with Maria on Thursday.

"We messed around with air traffic control for 30 years. Now we have deaths in the Potomac because of it.

"So this is a wake-up call for the new administration, which means, fix the FAA and fix it soon before more people die."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military members aboard the helicopter were a "fairly experienced crew" doing an "annual proficiency training flight."

“It was doing the required annual night evaluation," Hegseth said.

"They did have night vision goggles."

All takeoffs and landings were paused at the DC airport until 11 am local time.

Officials told passengers to check with airlines about canceled or delayed flights.

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