Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was sitting at Reagan National Airport waiting for his late night return flight to Buffalo when he saw, first hand, the frenzied first moments after an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter collided.
For Poloncarz, the horrific crash between American Airlines Flight 5342 and the Army helicopter was a case of deja vu.
Poloncarz, who was at Reagan National Airport waiting to board his late night American Airlines flight to Buffalo when the collision occurred, immediately thought of Flight 3407 that crashed in Clarence Center in 2009 and killed 50 people.
This week he was in Washington for a National Association of Counties Disaster Taskforce reform meeting concerning proposed FEMA cuts.
"I remember the impact it had on the families, and that was where my thoughts went initially, is there's families across the United States, loved ones who don't realize that they've lost their loved one," The county executive said. "They may have said 'goodbye, I love you, I'll see you tomorrow. See you a couple days,' and they'll never see them again because of this horrible accident. So Flight 3407 did come through my mind."
With 67 fatalities, Wednesday's crash was the worst in terms of lives lost since the 2001 crash were 265 people died just outside of suburban New York when a jetliner crashed.
It's also the first crash of its magnitude involving a domestic commercial air carrier since the 3407 crash in Clarence Center.
Sitting at Reagan's Terminal E, not far from the Potomac River crash site, Poloncarz saw up close and personal the emergency response effort.
"It really wasn't that far away from where the accident was, and you could see all of the the emergency vehicles heading out to what we thought originally was a runway," he said. "But then we realized they were going to the water's edge."
Because of the crash and the FAA closing down Reagan international until late Thursday morning, Poloncarz will be returning to Buffalo this afternoon, but he will be flying out of Baltimore Washington International.
The investigation into the DC crash continues.
Copyright 2025 WBFO-FM 88.7