A tragic incident occurred over Washington when an Army helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet, both of which are robust and widely used aircraft around the globe.
The Bombardier CRJ-700 jet had 60 passengers and four crew members aboard at the time of the crash. Meanwhile, the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was carrying three service members engaged in a training exercise. Sadly, it is believed that none of the occupants from either aircraft survived the unfortunate collision on Wednesday night, which resulted in both planes descending into the icy waters of the Potomac River.
Focusing first on the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, there are approximately 5,000 units operating worldwide, as reported by FlightGlobal.com. This military helicopter features a twin-engine and a four-blade design, and is produced by Sikorsky, a division of the defense giant Lockheed Martin.
The specific helicopter involved in the collision was a variant used by the Army, with other models designed for the Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, along with adaptations for specialized missions like intelligence operations.
The Black Hawk first entered service in 1979 and has played a significant role in various U.S. military engagements, including the operation that resulted in the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011, as well as the military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and interventions in Panama and Grenada.
The helicopter gained wide recognition as the aircraft featured in the 2001 film “Black Hawk Down,” which depicted the harrowing events surrounding a helicopter shot down during the civil war in Somalia. Over the years, there have been other incidents involving Black Hawks during training missions.
Turning to the Bombardier CRJ-700 passenger jet, it hails from a manufacturing tradition of Bombardier Inc., based in Quebec, Canada. The CRJ line was sold to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in June 2020, and even though they are no longer manufacturing these jets, they continue to produce parts.
The CRJ-700 is a twin-engine aircraft that comes in several configurations accommodating between 68 and 78 passengers. This regional jet is predominantly utilized for medium and short-haul flights, with over 900 units having been produced since its introduction in May 1999.
In a report from 2015, Bombardier noted that the CRJ-700 series represented 20% of all departure flights within North America, averaging around 200,000 flights each month. The aircraft involved in the recent crash was registered as N530EA and was manufactured in 2010 according to the Federal Aviation Administration. At the time of the accident, the jet was being operated by PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines.
