Absolutely chilling audio from air traffic control officials who were in charge of the skies when American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a suspiciously piloted VIP-transport Army helicopter above the Potomac near DC’s Reagan airport has been released, and in it, the horror can be heard as mistakes and instructions resulted in flaming tragedy.
The audio was captured because the air traffic controllers broadcast their instructions to aircraft over dedicated, publically accessible radio waves. As such, those instructions are frequently captured and recorded by hobbyist aviation trackers, as happened here. The audio they captured shows the conversation between the flight crew of the American Airlines plane and the ground control.
The relevant portion of the audio begins with the male pilot of the American Airlines flight receiving his instructions of where to land from the air traffic control tower and saying, in response to the runway direction instructions, “Change to runway 33, runway 33, cleared to land.”
Then, shortly afterward, the same air traffic control tower notified the nearby Sikorsky VH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, a “gold top” model used for transporting Army VIPs, referred to by the air traffic controllers as “PAT25,” that the aforementioned American Airlines flight was a mere 1,200 feet away and headed toward the airport’s runway 33.
A recorded male air traffic control voice then says, “Visual separation approved.” But things quickly escalated, with flight control suddenly asking PAT25, the helicopter, if it had a view of flight 5342, the American Airlines plane. Doing so just before the fiery explosion, the air traffic controller asks, “PAT25, do you have [flight 5342] in sight?”
Terrifyingly, there was no response from PAT25. So, not getting a response from the helicopter flying so near the American Airlines flight, the controller warned, “PAT25, pass behind [flight 5342].” Then the aircraft collide, and the explosion occurs. As that happened, a female voice from air traffic control exclaimed, “Oh! Oh my.” Replying, a male voice from air traffic control said, “Oh, they just went.” Another voice says, “Tower, did you just see that?”
Then, with the fireball in the sky and tragedy taking everyone by surprise, the air traffic controllers could be heard frantically diverting other planes. As they did so, an official with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority chimed in and shouted, “Crash! Crash! Crash! This is Alert 3. Off the approach end of runway 33. Approach end of runway 33. Helicopter crash.” Listen and watch here:
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Shortly after the incident, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”
In another post, the president commented on the flight level of the Blackhawk helicopter, which was about 50% higher than its maximum height allowed for the area. He said, “The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video