An American Airlines flight collided with a Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, DC, a region known for its congested airspace. Reagan National Airport, situated just three miles from the White House, is the busiest in the US with over 800 flights daily. The crash involved 64 passengers on board the American Eagle Flight 5342, operated by PSA Airlines, and military activity is frequent in the vicinity. Early search efforts suggested no survivors were expected from the incident, highlighting the risks of navigating such tightly controlled urban airspace.
“It's a beehive of activity,” Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and spokesperson for its pilot union, told The Washington Post. “It's extremely compact, and it's a high volume of traffic.”
Flying into and out of the airport, with short runways and such heavily restricted airspace nearby, is 'like threading a needle,' one pilot previously told Business Insider.
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