According to Flight Aware, nine flights that were scheduled between Reagan National and Detroit Metro were canceled. No flights out of Flint were affected.

The midair collision over the Potomac River on Wednesday brings back chilling memories of another tragedy in the same waters more than four decades ago—when Air Florida Flight 90, bound for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport,

Sixty-seven people died in a collision between a Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet operated by PSA Airlines and a military Black Hawk helicopter.

The collision between an American Airlines Group Inc. regional jet and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan airport in Washington left no survivors on board the two aircraft, authorities said.

If changes aren't made, that near-miss becomes a mid-air collision,” one aviation safety expert said. “Unfortunately, that's what we had last night.”

As the American Eagle Flight 5342, a CRJ jet, approached the helicopter, the tower controller asked the helicopter pilot if he had the CRJ in sight. The helicopter pilot cannot be heard responding to the question before the two aircraft collided.

DCA Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has shut down and The Federal Aviation Authority has confirmed a American Airlines Flight operated by PSA Airlines collided mid-air with a Blackhawk Sikor

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 evening. Three soldiers were onboard the helicopter and a massive search and rescue operation is now unfolding in the Potomac River.

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).

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

"A PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided in midair with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport around 9 p.m. local time," the preliminary statement read. It added that Flight 5342 had taken off from Wichita, Kan.