The crash ended the longest period in history of U.S. aviation without a mass fatality airliner accident by some estimates.
There has been much discussion regarding the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342—a flight that resulted in the death of all on board, as it crashed into the Potomac River just minutes before landing at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA).
A handful of concrete details surrounding the crash have emerged. The aircraft was a Bombardier CRJ700 series, a regional jet popular with airlines, including PSA Airlines, the carrier that operated the flight on behalf of American. The flight was nonstop from Wichita, Kansas, and the immediate cause of the crash appears to be the jet’s collision with an army helicopter, which was captured live on multiple cameras around the airport.
The crash ended the longest period in the history of U.S. aviation without a mass fatality airliner accident by some estimates. It has been almost 16 years since the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, operating as Continental Express, near Buffalo, New York, with 50 fatalities.
A Similar Case
Early reports of the crash compared it to another jetliner that crashed nearby in January 1982. Air Florida Flight 90 failed to gain altitude after taking off from the then-named Washington National Airport and struck the 14th Street Bridge before entering the Potomac River, with 78 fatalities. Four passengers and a flight attendant were pulled from the icy river and ultimately survived that crash.
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But there’s another crash from the same era that bears striking similarities to the crash of American Flight 5342.
In September 1978, a Boeing 727 belonging to Pacific Southwest Airlines (also called PSA), crashed on approach to San Diego International Airport while operating PSA Flight 182 from Los Angeles. A t-tailed aircraft like the CRJ700, the Boeing 727 had been in the final moments of the approach when it struck a Cessna 172 that had strayed into the path of the descending airliner. The 727 received damage to the leading edge of the wing and dove into a San Diego neighborhood, killing all 135 onboard, the two Cessna pilots, and seven people on the ground.
Quick reaction from a nearby photographer produced horrifying still photos of the 727 with its right wing on fire, pitched toward the ground during the final seconds of the flight.
At the time, the crash was the deadliest in U.S. aviation history, and remains the deadliest air crash in California.
What’s important to note, however, is what happened afterward. While it was immediately apparent the crash was caused by the mid-air collision, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spent nearly seven months investigating the crash to determine the root cause, then issued an amendment to that report in 1982, updating the weight of certain items in the report.
Ultimately, the cause of the crash was determined to be a failure on the part of the PSA pilots to follow Air Traffic Control (ATC) procedures. They had been instructed to maintain visual separation with the Cessna (meaning they would need to keep the aircraft in sight at all times), and had failed to notify ATC when they had lost sight of the other aircraft. ATC also shouldered some of the blame in the amended report for not using instrument rules to manage traffic when they were available at that airport.
The crash ultimately resulted in the FAA making changes to how the airspace around San Diego and other airports are classified and managed. The Cessna had been on a training flight at San Diego International because it was one of the few airports in the region equipped with instruments that new pilots needed to train on. Following the accident, instruments were added to other airports in the region to reduce the need for training flights at the busy San Diego International Airport.
Pacific Southwest Airlines—the original PSA—was acquired by USAir in 1987. USAir (later US Airways) renamed one of their regional airlines PSA Airlines in 1995 since they had acquired the rights to the PSA name during the merger and had to return it to use to avoid forfeiting the rights to the name. PSA was one of the US Airways assets acquired by American Airlines when it merged with US Airways in 2015, so it continues to operate today, although it is not directly descended from its namesake.
How Investigations Work
What’s important to remember is that the changes implemented following PSA Flight 182 made the industry safer, based on an exhaustive evidentiary review of the contributing factors to the crash.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom issued an employee memo the day after the crash, making clear who had his trust in the coming weeks as the investigation progresses, “The NTSB will be the sole source of truth going forward, and accuracy is of the utmost importance.”
At a briefing on February 1, NTSB Board Member Todd Inman noted that “the team that is working on this crash at DCA, collectively has over 350 years of seniority with the NTSB. We will find out what happened, and we will do everything we can to prevent [future accidents].”
NTSB accident reports—based on investigations that can stretch across multiple years— include recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration which has the power to draft and implement regulations regarding airline safety.
