'it's Affecting Everybody': Flight Crews Continue Working As They Cope With Tragedy

A timeline of the fatal DC plane crash

This is how events unfolded before the fatal plane crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

• The crash, the first major fatal aviation accident in the U.S. in 16 years, has shaken the aviation community, particularly pilots and flight attendants.
• Despite the tragedy, crew members are returning to work, emphasizing their commitment to safety and relying on improved mental health resources.
• Airlines have increased support systems for pilots and crew members, including counseling, peer support groups, and employee assistance programs, to address mental health concerns.

Wednesday’s deadly mid-air collision between a PSA Airlines passenger plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter and Friday's crash of a medical jet into a residential neighborhood in Philadelphia have sent shockwaves through the aviation community.

American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport when it collided with the military helicopter at around 9 p.m. All 64 people onboard the plane, including two flight attendants and pilots, plus the three soldiers in the helicopter died. It was the first major U.S. fatal plane crash in 16 years.

Although the investigation led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is ongoing and many questions are still unanswered, the disaster weighs heavily on many crew members.

"Whenever tragedy touches one member of our airline family, it impacts us all," the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) said in a press statement on Thursday. "We are so moved by the outpouring of support we’ve received in the wake of this tragedy."

As crew members cope with the tragedy and lean on improved mental health resources, they're also returning to the skies to be on duty. Although heartbreaking, pilots and flight attendants are highly trained professionals, with safety at the core of their jobs – a commitment reinforced in the wake of the crash.

For Captain Laura Einsetler, a commercial airline pilot with 30 years of experience, the accident underscores the attention on safety and the importance of managing stress as a pilot. "It makes us honestly that much more keenly aware of the every-moment factors that we need to stay to focused on," she said.

"As pilots, you are trained early on, from our beginning pilot days, how absolutely critical it is to compartmentalize – we are compartmentalizing experts," she said. "It’s really one of those many key factors as to why we have such a great safety record that we do have. When we’re in the aircraft or anytime we’re operating the aircraft, it’s full focus on our task at-hand."

In the U.S., air travel is considered the safest mode of transportation, according to the 2024 Transportation Statistics Report from the Bureau of Transportation, which was released before the crash.

"Transportation incidents for all modes claimed 44,546 lives in 2022, of which all but 2,032 involved highway motor vehicles. Preliminary estimates for 2023 suggest a further decline in fatalities," the report states. While no deaths occurred in 2023 from large commercial airline, several hundred fatalities have resulted from crashes involving "general aviation, commuter air, and air taxi services."

"This just doesn't happen, and it's a terrible tragedy and it's affecting everybody – cabin crew who do the most important thing to keep passengers safe as well as the pilot community, of course, has been severely shocked by this," said Dr. Hassan Shahidi, President and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation. "It's been a process. It's just been a couple days now, but they're professionals and they're doing their jobs well."

"A major accident is one of the most traumatic events a flight attendant can experience," the AFA-CFW said in a press statement. "The emotional, psychological, and professional toll can be overwhelming." The flight attendant union shared ways for cabin crew to cope, including seeking out mental health resources from their airline. The AFA-CFW did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

Ultimately, it's up to a crew member to determine if it's too overwhelming to manage their stress or anxiety. "That is where, as pilots, we have to make that determination, are we safe to fly or do we need to come off that flight and just deadhead home and handle what we need to handle," said Ensetler.

It's also part of the regulatory guidance that pilots study during their training, according to Mike Ginter, a general aviation aircraft pilot and head of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Air Safety Institute.

"I think flight crews are coping with it and if they aren’t doing a good job coping with it, there are mechanisms... really, it’s up to the pilot, but I guarantee you there’s a resource in every airline," Ginter said.

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Pilot mental health has been a "big taboo" topic in the industry, according to Einsetler, but there have been strides to better support pilots and crew members. In a 2024 analysis, pilots said they avoided discussing their mental health or seeking our resources out of fear of negatively impacting their careers.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on employee resources. However, American's CEO Robert Isom sent a letter to employees Thursday saying, "We are deploying all of our resources to make sure we do everything we can to take care of the needs of the families and loved ones of our passengers and crew members. That is our priority."

The aftermath of the pandemic helped improve that by pushing airlines to ramp up support systems, like employee assistance programs that offer counseling and resources along with peer support groups, according to Shahidi.

"I want the general public to know, as high-level professionals, we take what we do very seriously – ourselves, our crew and our passengers' safety – that’s number one absolute priority," Einsetler said.