Holy crap, it’s really eerie to listen to this DCA tower recording only an hour or so after the fact. You only need listen from 15:00 to 18:00. The wind is strong out of the NW, 15 gusting to 25kt., so the tower offered Rwy 33 (right into the wind) to a couple of aircraft. PSA flight 5342 accepted, and it’s sad to hear the young guy working the radios on the plane at this point.

The tower asked Pat-25, the call sign of the helicopter, if he had a visual on the PSA CRJ-700. Apparently, the answer is yes, but you can’t hear Pat’s transmissions, because they must have been using their UHF radio. (The controller can hear on both that military UHF freq. and the civilian VHF freq., and he can transmit on both at the same time.) After that, the tower told Pat-25 to pass behind the CRJ. Again, you can’t hear the readback.

At 17:48, during a transmission to someone else, one can hear in the background the sounds of shock in the tower as the personnel have seen the crash. Within 5 minutes, all inbounds are told to go around and sent to contact Potomac Approach, another helo nearby is told to land, and arial rescue work must already be in progress

I don’t see how this is the tower’s fault. I wonder if the strong winds were a factor. Again, did the helo have a visual on the wrong aircraft? They may have been used to airliners generally landing on the long(er) runway, 1/19, coming either up or down the Potomac River. It was 1 tonight, with 33 also in use..

• Replies: @James B. Shearer, @EdwardM
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Ralph L says:
January 30, 2025 at 5:19 am GMT • 10.2 hours ago • 100 Words ↑
@Achmed E. Newman
AP reports it was a training helicopter flight from Ft Belvoir. They brought in ambulances from Fairfax Co, not near the airport.

My first plane ride–out of (pre-Reagan) National to Miami–was two years after the famous ’81 Air Florida crash into the Potomac and from the same runway. Just before takeoff toward the 14th St bridge, someone near me said “Air Florida” to help my nerves. Fortunately, it was June, so ice wasn’t likely.

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James B. Shearer says:
January 30, 2025 at 5:43 am GMT • 9.8 hours ago ↑
@Achmed E. Newman
“… Again, did the helo have a visual on the wrong aircraft? …”

Video of the collision (available on the internet) appears to show a third airplane in the vicinity. So this (helo looking in the wrong place) seems possible.