A screen grab captured from a video shows a regional plane that collided in midair with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2025. Kennedy Center Cam/Anadolu via Getty Images

Squadron primarily used for transporting VIPs around D.C. was apparently familiarizing new pilot with area.

Wednesday night, shortly before 9pm ET, an American Airlines flight carrying 64 people was on its final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it collided with an Army helicopter with three soldiers on board, about 400 feet off the ground, killing everyone on both aircraft.

The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk had departed from Fort Belvoir in Virginia with a flight path that cut directly across the flight path of Reagan National Airport

This final approach is probably the most carefully controlled in the world, as it it lies three miles south of the White House and the Capitol.

According to various media reports, military aircraft frequently train in the congested airspace around D.C. for “familiarization and continuity of government planning.”

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter, whose callsign was registered as PAT25, if he could see the arriving plane.

‘PAT25 do you see a CRJ? PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ,’ the air traffic controller said. A few seconds later, a fireball erupted in the night sky above Washington DC as the two aircraft collided.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued the following statement on X:

It seems that Blackhawks from the 12th Aviation Battalion out of Davison Army Airfield are primarily used for shuttling VIPs around the D.C. area. The following appears to be a helicopter from this battalion.

On the face of it, it strikes me as very imprudent to conduct training flights at night that cross the final approach to Reagan D.C. To me, the word “training” suggests a potential for making errors that an instructor is called upon to correct.

It also strikes me as very strange that Army Blackhawk helicopters operating in this airspace at night are not required to operate with bright external lights, especially when crossing the final approach to Reagan D.C.

Finally, though it’s nothing more than a vague intuition, it seems to me that there is something very strange about this disaster and the timing of it. I wonder if, for some reason, risk management of such training activities was impaired.

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The Vigilant Fox

 

After 27 fatalities, the destruction of over 12,000 structures, and $150 to $250 billion in damages, California resident and comedian Bill Maher didn’t hold back his outrage over his state’s catastrophic wildfire response on Real Time.

In a scathing monologue, Maher first pointed out to the climate cult that mandating EVs and shaming people for their carbon footprints means nothing when the government can’t even manage wildfires.

“You know what the absolute worst thing for the environment is? Wildfires. A 2022 study found that the smoke from just the two in 2020 wiped out 18 years of carbon reduction in the state—which means we suffered the pain of driving those early-model Priuses for nothing,” Maher quipped.

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Maher zeroed in on LA Mayor Karen Bass’s selection of Kristin Crowley as fire chief, suggesting she was only chosen for being the “best lesbian” for the job instead of the best person—something Maher argued was “not good enough” for essential services.

“Am I against a lesbian being chief? Of course not. Do I think a lesbian can do the job? Of course, I do. And maybe she’s the best person for the job. Or maybe they really wanted a lesbian in that job, and she’s just the best lesbian for the job, and with essential services, that’s not good enough,” Maher snapped.

“Crowley’s official bio says, ‘Chief Crowley leads a diverse department, creating, supporting, and promoting a culture that values diversity, inclusion, and equity, while striving to meet and exceed the expectations of the communities.’ Well, you didn’t exceed my expectations, which was that the whole city wouldn’t burn down!” he stressed.

“But it’s telling that diversity is mentioned twice before we get to ‘while striving to meet expectations.’ Now, can you do two things at once? Yes, but it matters where your head is,” Maher argued.

Maher went on to admit that it’s “not wrong” to blame wokeness for California’s disastrous fire response, turning his attention to Deputy Fire Chief Kristine Larson, whose recent comments are so absurd that Maher called them “kind of racist.”

Larson said in a viral social media post, “You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it’s a medical call or a fire call that looks like you.”

Maher fired back at this statement, saying, “which would sound kind of racist if a Southern sheriff said it.”

“Now, is wokeness the main reason for the fires? Of course not,” Maher said. “But let’s not pretend it hasn’t played a role. Our government’s unforced errors are straight out of the progressive playbook: questionable budget priorities, sky-high taxes that get you nothing, and a constant obsession with identity politics instead of fixing what’s broken.”

“Cali’s got commissions, agencies, bureaucrats, and even sign language interpreters who emote with their face,” Maher continued. “But where’s the common sense? Where’s the action?” he asked.

In his final words, Maher warned California that they better figure out how to actually govern “soon” because “wildfires in California are like boob jobs in a strip club: inevitable, and only getting bigger.”

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Watch the full monologue below:

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