WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday that “deep underlying” system failures and flaws led to a deadly collision in Washington, D.C., nearly a year ago that killed 67 people.

The Jan. 29, 2025, collision near Reagan National Airport was the deadliest commercial aviation accident in the United States in more than two decades, CNN reported. An Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional aircraft collided and plunged into the icy Potomac River.

“Concerns were raised repeatedly, went unheard, squashed … stuck in red tape and bureaucracy,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said during a hearing to announce the agency’s findings on the causes of the crash. “Deep underlying systemic failures, system flaws, aligned to create the conditions that led to this devastating tragedy.”

Sixty-four passengers and crew members aboard the jet died, along with three soldiers on the helicopter.

Hormedy also said there were “failures of entire organizations to evaluate and act on readily available data, heed repeated recommendations, and foster robust safety cultures.”

On Wednesday, family members will gather at an event to honor the people who died from the collision and the first responders who aided with recovery efforts, The Washington Post reported.

The briefing was the most detailed account of the crash so far and offered specific details about how the two aircraft collided. The helicopter’s rotor blades hit under the jet, severing a wing and causing both aircraft to crash into the river, according to the newspaper.

Lead investigator Brice Banning said an air-traffic controller was handling six airplanes and five helicopters when the crash occurred, The Associated Press reported.

However, “airplane communications were only heard in other airplanes, and helicopter communications were only heard in other helicopters,” the NTSB said.

Homendy criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for not addressing the dangers of the proximity of the two routes, despite years of warnings from pilots navigating the routes, the Post reported.

“How is it that no one, absolutely no one in the FAA did the work to figure out there was only 75 feet — at best — 75 feet of vertical separation between a helicopter on Route 4 and an airplane landing on runway 33?” Hormendy said.

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