If changes aren't made, that near-miss becomes a mid-air collision,” one aviation safety expert said. “Unfortunately, that's what we had last night.”

The crash near Reagan National Airport has renewed questions about the airport's flight load, considering its small size, among other issues.

DCA Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has shut down and The Federal Aviation Authority has confirmed a American Airlines Flight operated by PSA Airlines collided mid-air with a Blackhawk Sikor

Staffing levels at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport were 'not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,' according to a preliminary report

Fatal crashes of commercial aircraft in the U.S. have become a rarity. The last was in 2009 near Buffalo, New York.

Officials say an aircraft went down near Ronald Reagan National Airport, and all takeoffs and landings have been halted.

Midair collision of passenger jet and military helicopter outside the nation's capital was the first mass fatality commercial air disaster in the US since 2009

An American Airlines jet with 60 passengers and four crew members aboard collided Wednesday with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.

Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. Federal aviation investigators vowed earlier in the day that they will find the cause of a horrific collision. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at a briefing that the agency wants to assure the American public it will "leave no stone unturned in this investigation .

An American Airlines jet with 60 passengers and four crew members aboard collided Wednesday with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.

A jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided Wednesday with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.