The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency tasked with examining serious transport-related accidents.

A collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people brought renewed focus on the federal agency charged with investigating aviation disasters.

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.

Sixty passengers and four crew members from the plane and three Black Hawk helicopter personnel are feared dead as a recovery mission is underway.

Sixty-seven people are presumed dead after a passenger plane on approach to Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC, collided Wednesday night with a US Army helicopter midair, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River below,

D.C. police confirmed a crash had taken place over the Potomac and that search and rescue operations were taking place in the river. Donald Trump later weighed in.

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

Last year, senators from Virginia and Maryland sounded the alarm over congestion in the skies above Washington.

According to a report by the FAA, one air traffic controller was working two positions at the time of the crash.

Hopes are beginning to fade for 64 people on board the doomed American Airlines flight which crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday night.

The crash between a regional jet and a military helicopter left 67 dead, including three students and six parents in Fairfax and multiple former students of Loudoun public schools.