Was the helicopter involved in the midair collision near Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2025, a police helicopter? No, that's not true: Local police refuted the claim shortly after the crash. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the helicopter that collided with a civilian plane was operated by the U.S. military.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on Jan 29, 2025. It opened:
🚨#BREAKING: A significant emergency response is underway, and a mass casualty has been declared after an American Airlines jet collided with a D.C. Police helicopter in a possible midair collision.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jan 30 14:32:32 2025 UTC)
A commercial plane with 60 passengers and 4 crew members on board collided (archived here) with a helicopter after dark on January 29, 2025, near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The Metropolitan Police Department covering the area of Washington, D.C., refuted the claim that the helicopter had anything to do with local law enforcement. The department wrote on X (archived here):
MPD's helicopter is NOT involved in this incident and is currently assisting in the multi-agency response.
The MPD issued an additional statement (archived here) confirming that the local police participated in the search-and-rescue operation after the crash.
Late in the night, the National Safety Transportation Board described (archived here) one of the aircraft as "a Sikorsky H-60 military helicopter".
The FAA's database of aviation accidents and incidents (archived here) referred to it a "U.S. Army Black Hawk."
In the early hours of January 30, 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense reposted on X a statement (archived here) from Secretary Pete Hegseth who had been confirmed (archived here) to lead the U.S. military days before the accident.
Hegseth cited the Office of Public Affairs saying that the helicopter involved in the crash was used by the military:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jan 30 14:08:15 2025 UTC)
On January 30, 2025, the Department of Defense account on X posted Hegseth's video address (archived here). Starting from the 00:42 mark, he addressed the crash, confirming that the helicopter was operated by the U.S. Army.
As reported by Reuters (archived here), its call sign was PAT25.
Other Lead Stories articles about the January 29, 2025, plane crash in Washington, D.C. can be found here.
