In the United States, the most terrible aviation disaster has occurred in the last two decades following numerous warnings about the state of aviation safety in the country. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the shortage of dispatchers at American airports due to the increased demand for air travel with the revival of aviation activity.
The collision occurred around 9 PM. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that a passenger Bombardier aircraft, operated by PSA Airlines, and a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter collided while approaching Reagan National Airport in Washington. There was a prolonged period without a permanent management leader, and the inspectors warned about the increasing likelihood of collisions at airports.
The official findings regarding the causes of the recent crash near Reagan Airport will likely be announced no earlier than next year, when the Black Hawk helicopter of the military, performing routine training, collided with a passenger plane that was following from Wichita, Kansas, as a result of which 67 people died.
"We know that we have a serious shortage of dispatchers, and many of them are forced to work additional hours, often tired, and this is fundamentally a mistake of Congress," said former Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio.
The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, expressed stronger warnings, stating the need to increase funding for dispatchers and technological upgrades.
The United States has experienced a series of serious aviation incidents, with five cases in 2022 and eleven in 2023, including near-collisions of passenger aircraft with other aircraft or unmanned technology. When the situation again worsened in 2024, the federal aviation administration continued to investigate certain incidents until the end of the year.
In an official letter to the ministry's management beginning surveillance, during Trump's administration, it articulated controller actions and helicopter crews when collisions became known, naming them unprecedented. The collision became the deadliest daily incident in U.S. aviation since 2001.
Before the response regarding the reasons for the last aviation disaster in the U.S., President Trump unjustifiably stated that the diverse policies in Biden's administration contributed to the incident. The Federal Aviation Administration suffers from a shortage of 3,000 controllers nationwide. Questions about the conduct of controllers and helicopter crews arose immediately after the last disaster.
