An airspace cluttered with passenger planes and military aircraft. A history of near-crashes. And a growing shortage of air traffic controllers available to manage it all. Some experts, politicians and airport managers have been warning for years of the risks posed by the crowded airspace and volume of flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

David Freeman caught a flight to International Airport on Thursday from Reagan National Airport after a American Airlines jet collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River on Wednesday night.

The plan to add five incoming and five outgoing flights was included in the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act last year.

An aircraft is down in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, authorities said after a suspected collision late Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if there are fatalities. Video circulating on X appeared to show a midair collision.

Lawmakers have expressed concerns about congestion in at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport amid a constricted space.

Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) said Thursday that the deadly plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night will “be a tragedy that touches our community.” Estes represents Kansas’s 4th Congressional District,

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is closed, according to an FAA alert posted Wednesday night. A ground stop will prevent planes from landing at the airport through at least 5 a.m. Thursday morning,

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the military has identified the three soldiers killed in the Black Hawk collision over the Potomac River.

A regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army helicopter late Wednesday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, sparking a massive nighttime rescue operation in the icy Potomac River. The crash is being described as the most serious aviation disaster on U.

American Eagle Flight 5342 en route from Wichita, Kansas (ICT), to Washington, D.C. (DCA) was involved in an accident at DCA,” the airline said in a statement.

As Wednesday night's catastrophic crash between a military helicopter and a passenger jet near Washington, D.C., officially turned from a rescue to a recovery mission, there was a common question among observers: Why were the two aircraft flying so close to each other?