The model of the plane involved in Wednesday’s collision with a military helicopter over the Potomac River never had a fatal incident before the crash.
Sixty passengers and four crew from the Bombardier CRJ-700 series aircraft are presumed dead from the crash, which also killed the three military members aboard the helicopter.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, which is owned by the non-profit organization Flight Safety Foundation, the aircraft model had 93 other incidents since its introduction in 2001. None of them had any fatalities until the 94th on Wednesday.
The plane model’s last incident occurred earlier this month, which was a loss of cabin pressure that forced the plane to descend, but it resulted in no injuries. Only two other incidents occurred in 2024, a bird strike and a lightning strike of the aircraft.
The last event that caused substantial damage to a CRJ-700 series aircraft before Wednesday was in September 2019, when two of the same aircraft collided while on the ground at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. There were no injuries but there was significant damage to the aircraft.
The Bombardier CRJ-700 series is also regarded as safer than common commercial aircraft modes such as the Airbus A310 and most common aircraft such as the Boeing 737, 747, and 757.
The CRJ-700 routinely holds 70 seats on the aircraft, has a max speed of 556 miles per hour, and a max altitude of 41,000 feet. American Airlines’s American Eagle brand commonly uses the Bombardier CRJ-700 series aircraft and the Embraer E-Jet for shorter flights.
“The CRJ-700 has been a preferred aircraft for regional airlines and short trips and despite typically being flown by newer commercial pilots, the aircraft has not been involved in any serious accidents until the midair yesterday,” Motley Rice Member attorney Jim Brauchle told the Washington Examiner.
The exact plane wrecked in the crash on Wednesday, the Bombardier CRJ-701ER, had three prior incidents. Only one was severe — the plane struck a deer with its wing during takeoff at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in 2017 and had to make an emergency landing. The plane was manufactured in 2004.
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The manufacturer of the jet, Canada-based Bombardier Aviation, also produced the plane involved in the last U.S. commercial airplane crash in 2009. The Buffalo plane crash featured a Bombardier Q400, an older twin-turboprop aircraft.
Most of the blame for the collision has been shifted to the military helicopter, which reportedly shifted from its approved flight path.
