Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said the United States has “the safest airspace in the world” as he tried to assuage any fears about flying domestically in the wake of a deadly collision between a commercial airliner and an Army helicopter near the nation’s capital.
The crash on Jan. 29 near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Eagle flight is believed to have killed all 67 people involved, officials said.
Duffy was asked at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30 if it was safe for Americans to fly after the first disaster involving a U.S. commercial airliner in 16 years.
“I will tell you with complete confidence: We have the safest airspace in the world,” Duffy said.
Investigators are working to determine how the crash occurred, but Duffy believes it could have been avoided.
“Do I think this was preventable?” he said. “Absolutely.”
All 60 passengers and four crew members on the American Eagle flight were not expected to have survived the crash, officials said. Among the passengers were several elite figure skaters, U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement to NBC News.
Duffy said it was “a clear night” and that the helicopter and American Eagle flight were in “standard” flight patterns ahead of the crash.
“This was not unusual with a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at DCA,” he said.
The fuselage of American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was found in three different sections of the Potomac River in “waist-deep water,” according to Duffy.
“Safety is our expectation,” he said. “Everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely, that when you depart an airport, you get to your destination. That didn’t happen last night.”
He added that investigators “will not rest” until they find answers to the cause of the crash for families of the victims and the “flying public.”
“You should be assured that when you fly, you’re safe,” he said.
The disaster is the first involving a U.S. commercial airliner since 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed on approach to Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground.
The crash resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration limiting pilots to nine to 14 hours of maximum duty per day and giving them more rest time between flights.
The Jan. 29 crash comes less than a year after a pair of near-misses at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is the busiest runway in the country.
An American Airlines flight was speeding down a runway for takeoff at the airport in May 2024 when it had to slam on the brakes to avoid a smaller private plane landing on an intersecting runway.