🌊 Did Politics Cause the Crash?

Did someone forward you this? Subscribe here free!

Within minutes of an American Airlines flight crashing into a military helicopter on January 29, politicians were pointing figures: At DEI, at budget cuts, at airlines.

Yet our investigation found that it was politicians of both parties who ignored repeated warnings about the airport and continued to expand it, despite dire warnings.

As emergency workers began fishing bodies out of the Potomac River on January 29, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran addressed a late-night press conference.

“I know that flight. I’ve flown it many times myself. I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct, nonstop flight service to DCA. That flight has been in existence for about a year,” he said.

“I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct, nonstop flight service to DCA.” 

Is that what caused the tragedy?

Washington, DC’s Reagan National Airport sits on a mere 733 acres along the Potomac River, looking directly across to the maze of federal government buildings, monuments, and military installations that make up the nation’s capital and its surroundings. By 2023, the airport, originally designed to handle 15M passengers annually, was processing more than 25M. Its main runway had become the busiest in the country, averaging close to 1,000 takeoffs and landings each day.

By the time a DC-bound American Airlines flight collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing a combined 67 passengers, more than 700 planes had already landed and left Reagan National Airport that day. The event was a tragedy, but not entirely unpredictable: Just one day before, another flight into Reagan was forced to abort its landing after a helicopter flew into its flight path.

While the exact cause of the collision has not been determined, a lot went wrong on the night of January 29: One air traffic controller left work early, leaving a single person to handle the air traffic of both planes and helicopters flying over the airspace. The Army helicopter reportedly had a key safety system turned off.

Many on the right have blamed DEI hiring initiatives, while many on the left have blamed cuts introduced by Trump’s administration.

Yet if the airport weren’t so crowded, it’s possible that none of that would have mattered. And that is the politicians’ fault.

The story of how this airport became so dangerously and uniquely overcrowded is a tale of congressional self-interest, airline industry lobbying, and repeated warnings ignored. It took over a week to pull the consequences of this story out of the Potomac River, all while the airport kept expanding.

Editor’s Note

This was one of the more shocking stories we’ve come across lately. If any of you are pilots, flight attendants, or otherwise work in aviation, we’re curious to hear your thoughts.

Also, we had planned to send out one deep-dive this weekend, on Sunday. We ended up wrapping up another report, though, which means double deep dives for you.

See you tomorrow.

–Max and Max

RocaNews co-founders