D.C. air traffic control tower reportedly understaffed when aircraft collision

31/1/2025 6:25

An internal report by the Federal Aviation Administration suggested that the controller on duty when the deadly aircraft collision happened in Washington, D.C. was doing a job usually handled by two people, U.S. media reported Thursday.

Staffing at the air traffic control tower at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was "not normal" during the deadly late-night crash between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people, The New York Times quoted a preliminary report as saying.

The report said the controller who was handling helicopters in the airport's vicinity on Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways - jobs typically assigned to two different controllers.

At a press conference in the White House earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump said that there were some warnings prior to the midair collision of a passenger plane and helicopter near the airport Wednesday night, "but the warnings were given very, very late."

Trump said he had heard "very scary tapes." "When the air traffic controller said, he was talking about, do you see him? But there was very little time left when that was stated," Trump said, adding that there is also "a pilot problem" from the standpoint of the helicopter.

Also at the press conference, Trump confirmed there are no survivors in the collision, and "the work has now shifted to a recovery mission."

John Donnelly, chief of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, told a press conference at the airport Thursday morning that 28 bodies had been found, including 27 people from the plane and one from the helicopter.