The mid-air collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in Washington DC "raises serious questions over air traffic control" following multiple near misses at US airports, an aviation expert has told The Mirror. American Airline Flight 5342 collided with a Black Hawk military helicopter near the Ronald Reagan National Airport in the US capital at about 8:48pm last night (local time). About 60 passengers and four crew members were on board the passenger plane incoming from Wichita, Kansas.

Harrowing audio captured the moments leading up to the crash with air traffic controllers audibly gasping in the background when the aircraft collided. A massive search and rescue effort is underway with hundreds of emergency service personnel trawling the Potomac River. To follow The Mirror's live coverage of the collision, click here. But the disaster has highlighted multiple near misses at airports across the US and raises serious questions about air traffic control staff shortages, according to an aviation expert.

"This mid-air collision between an American Eagle regional jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington Reagan National is a deeply alarming incident, especially given how tightly controlled and congested the airspace is over the US capital," Alex Macheras told The Mirror. "While the investigation will reveal exactly what happened, this accident raises serious questions about air traffic control and airspace management and coordination, particularly in a country where air traffic control staffing shortages have been of deep concern over the last three years.".

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) went on a hiring spree last year to fill gaps in its workforce but was still short of thousands of air traffic controllers. Numbers, first reported by CNN, showed in May last year they needed about 3,000 more air traffic controllers. At that time, the FAA had about 11,500 controllers who were fully certified or had reached a point in their training where they could work independently. In 2023 the FAA hired 1,512 new controller candidates but lost about 1,3000, including those who retired or stopped their training programmes.

Since 2023, there have been 15 near miss incidents at US airports including one at Ronald Raegan National Airport in the country's capital on May 18 last year. "The US air traffic system has been under immense pressure, with multiple near-misses, particularly a sharp rise in recorded events in 2023, highlighting cracks in the system," Mr Macheras continued. "While collisions have been avoided, the rise in serious safety incidents is a growing concern. Reagan National is one of the busiest airports in the country, operating with a high volume of traffic on a single main runway, meaning precision in air traffic control is absolutely critical.

"This also involved a commercial jet equipped with TCAS—technology designed to help prevent mid-air collisions—operated by trained pilots who are drilled in avoiding such situations. That a Black Hawk helicopter was permitted to cross the final approach path of incoming passenger aircraft will almost certainly trigger fundamental changes that could change US air travel/airspace management going forward.”.

President Donald Trump also raised questions about how the disaster could happen in a post shared to his social media platform TruthSocial. He said: "The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. "The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a clear, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. Not good.".