The crew of the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the deadly collision with a jetliner had thousands of hours of flight experience.

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).

WASHINGTON (7News) — There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the collision and crash at Reagan National Airport (DCA) between an American Airlines operated plane and a Black Hawk helicopter.

Dozens of people are feared dead after a military helicopter collided with a civilian airliner midair around Washington, D.C.

An American Airlines jet collided in midair with a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The passenger jet was en route from Wichita with 60 passengers and four crew onboard.

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

A preliminary safety report from the Federal Aviation Administration reportedly found that air traffic control staffing was abnormally low at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 29, according to The New York Times, which obtained a copy of the report.

Investigators analyze flight data to understand the crash between an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter and exactly what was going on before disaster struck.

The midair crash in Washington D.C. is having ripple effects across the country. A Colonel and pilot at the Papago Park Military Reservation in Phoenix is talking about how they keep safe in the air when taking off so close to Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport.

Political leaders had warned about the dangers of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. months before an American Airlines flight collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on its approach to the airport.

The airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has long been problematic due to heavy military and commercial flight activity in the nation’s capital, according to industry insiders.