DC air traffic controller reveals warnings before American Airlines plane crash

An air traffic controller has identified warning signs in the lead up to a fatal air collision in which 67 people were killed.

The crash happened in Washington DC on January 29 2025, and involved a US Army helicopter and an American Airlines plane.

All of those on board both aircraft were killed in the crash, including three people on the Black Hawk helicopter and 64 people on the passenger jet.

Horrifying footage showed the two aircraft on a collision course, before the collision lit up the night sky with an explosion.

Now, more than a year after the crash an air traffic control expert has said that there were clear warning signs in the run up to the disaster.

Emily Hanoka opened up about the disaster in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday.

Emergency workers recovering wreckage (Al Drago/Getty Images)

She said: “The warning signs were all there.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.”

Hanoka said that staff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport airport were already seeing their capacity stretched, but had been made to keep traffic moving.

“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," she said. "And many recommendations were made, and they never went too far."

The airport would see some 800 flights travelling from the largest runway each day- a huge task for staff to manage.

Hanoka said: “Some hours are overloaded, to the point where it’s over the capacity that the airport can handle."

An inquiry has since been launched into the disaster (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

She added: “There was definitely a pressure. If you do not move planes, you will gridlock the airport.”

The air traffic controller went on to say that 'there were obvious cracks in the system, there were obvious holes'.

She described how staff would frequently have to rely on a high-pressure technique called a 'squeeze play'.

This is where planes will take off and land within just seconds of one another on the same runway, and requires highly precise co-ordination and management.

“This is what has to happen, in order to make this airspace work," she said. "And it did work. It worked until it didn’t."

Speaking after the crash, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said: “The tragedy over the Potomac one year ago revealed a startling truth: years of warning signs were missed, and the FAA needed dire reform."