Before the additional flights were approved, a senator warned that the increase could heighten the risk of collisions.

DCA is one of the most demanding airports in the world. It also has what’s known as ‘helicopter alley’ with hundreds of police, military, news and rescue helicopters criss-crossing

The plan to add five incoming and five outgoing flights was included in the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act last year.

The crash near Reagan National Airport has renewed questions about the airport's flight load, considering its small size, among other issues.

An Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair with an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday.

An airplane collided with a helicopter while trying to land at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, officials said.

The Associated Press is providing live video of the scene of the plane crash near Washington’s Reagan Airport:

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is closed, according to an FAA alert posted Wednesday night. A ground stop will prevent planes from landing at the airport through at least 5 a.m. Thursday morning,

A midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft. That was the word from authorities Thursday as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot after the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.

An Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a regional jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday evening, U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News.

The black box is a flight data recorder that documents all actions and speech made in the cockpit of a commercial aircraft. In previous plane crashes, black boxes have given investigators clues into how or why the flight went down. They are meant to survive plane crashes and can reveal what happened in a flight’s final moments.