DC air traffic controller reveals ‘obvious cracks in the system’ before midair collision that killed 67 people

A former Washington DC-area air traffic controller has spoken out about the ‘obvious cracks in the system’ that existed long before an American Airlines plane collided with a Blackhawk helicopter last year.

The flight was traveling above Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in DC on January 29, 2025 when it crashed into the Army Blackhawk helicopter in mid-air, killing all 67 passengers onboard the flight.

But Emily Hanoka said she had seen problems at the congested airport long before her shift that night, which ended just a few hours before the fatal collision.

‘There were obvious cracks in the system, there were obvious holes,’ she told 60 Minutes’ Sharyn Alfonsi in an interview that aired Sunday night.

‘You had frontline controllers ringing that bell for years and years, saying, “This is not safe. This cannot continue. Please change this.” And that didn’t happen.’

In a report released earlier this year, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that between 2021 to 2024, 85 near mid-air collisions between helicopters and commercial planes at the airport were reported to the FAA.

60 Minutes also obtained records that show that just one day before the fatal collision, two separate passenger jets had to take sudden action to avoid colliding with Army helicopters. 

‘The warning signs were all there,’ Hanoka said. ‘Controllers formed local safety councils and every time that a controller made these safety reports, another controller was compiling data to back up the recommendation. And many recommendations were made and they never went too far.’ 

An American Airlines flight collided with a Black Hawk helicopter mid-air over Reagan National Airport last year 

Part of the problem, Hanoka said, is that Reagan National Airport is owned by the federal government – and Congress decides how many flights can take off from the airport each day.

Since 2000, lawmakers added at least 50 flights a day to the airport’s roster and approved another 10 in 2024.

Reagan National Airport now transports 25 million passengers each year, 10 million more than its intended capacity.

‘Some hours are overloaded, to the point where it’s over the capacity that the airport can handle,’ Hanoka said, adding that there was ‘definitely pressure to get planes out.

‘I you do not move planes, you will get gridlock at the airport,’ she explained. 

Making matters even more complicated, airspace is restricted over the White House, the US Capitol and other government buildings, funneling planes and helicopters into the same narrow corridor over the Potomac River.

There are also only three short runways at Reagan that all interconnect, with the airport’s Runway 1 ranking as the busiest in the country, with more than 800 flights a day, or roughly one every minute. 

 This is a breaking news story and will be updated.