On Wednesday night, an airplane collided with an army helicopter just outside of D.C., killing 67 in what is the deadliest U.S. air crash in over two decades.

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The crash occurred just outside of Reagan National Airport, sending both crafts into the Potomac River. As of Friday, over 40 bodies had been recovered from the river.

What Happened

The Associated Press shared details about the crash on Friday:

The regional jet out of Wichita, Kansas with 60 passengers and four crew was preparing to land. The UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia was on a training exercise carrying three soldiers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Skies were clear.

A few minutes before the Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 series twin-engine jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked Flight 5342 if it could use a shorter runway. The pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the landing. Flight-tracking sites show the plane adjusted its approach to the new runway.

Less than 30 seconds before the collision an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the plane in sight. The military pilot responded yes.

Moments later the controller made another call to the helicopter, apparently telling the copter to wait for the jet to pass.

There was no reply and the aircraft collided.

As of now, bodies are still being recovered and an investigation into what caused the deadly crash is underway.

The President’s Response

This tragedy occurred less than two weeks into President Trump’s second term in the Oval Office. As such, the President was quick to address the nation. According to Just the News:

President Trump on Thursday morning spoke from the White House about the tragic air crash the previous night in which all of the passengers and crew members from the commercial passenger jet and military helicopter involved died, saying, “as a nation we grieve.”

Trump also said the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation and Safety Board and the U.S. military will carry out a “systematic and comprehensive investigation.”

President Trump also suggested that DEI might have played a part in the crash, claiming that diversity hiring practices may have led to unqualified air traffic controllers.

The Secretary of Defense’s Response

Since the crash involved an army helicopter, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also been busy addressing the nation. In a recent interview with Fox News the new Secretary promised to be “as transparent as possible” throughout the investigation.

Secretary Hegseth has called the pilots “experienced,” although he also defended President Trump’s blaming of DEI.

Need for Prayer

This crash did not happen out of the blue. The New York Post reported that the FAA has had air traffic control staffing issues since the pandemic, issues that it still has yet to recover from. From The Post:

In 2023, the Department of Transportation revealed that a whopping 77% of critical air traffic control facilities were understaffed.

The same year, two Times investigations revealed that near-misses on airport runways – known as “incursions” – were astonishingly high, and that overworked, burnt-out air traffic controllers had fallen asleep on the job or gotten drunk at work.

Last year Congress passed a $105 million spending bill to address the problem, but the shortages persisted, and FAA was still down around 3,000 controllers, CNN reported, causing flight delays in airports across the country.

…

Meanwhile, the number of documented close calls on American runways remains stubbornly high, with the FAA reporting around 1,750 runway incursions in each of the past three years, compared to just 1,278 in 2014.

Let’s pray for protection over our skies and for all who are flying in our nation. Let’s also pray for the Trump administration, which is facing a major test less than two weeks after the inauguration. Pray especially for Secretary Hegseth, who was in office for less than a week when this crash took place.

Above all else, pray for the truth to be revealed and for God’s will to be done.

Share your own prayers in the comments below.

(Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)