But even before the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation—a neurotically thorough process that will probably take about a year, and thus meshes poorly with the news cycle and the conspiracy-theorist cycle—it is easy to see some of the lines of inquiry that crash detectives will pursue.

In the three years before the deadly collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Reagan National Airport, at least two other pilots reported near-misses with helicopters while landing at the airport,

An American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter outside Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. Wednesday night. A D.C. fire official said Thursday that “we don't think there are any survivors from this accident" and "we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.

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

The Wall Street Journal examined flight route and elevation data to show the moments before American Airlines Flight 5342 fatally collided with ​an Army Black Hawk helicopter.