When Congress pushed ahead last year with adding 10 new daily flights to Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration had data showing an unnerving number of near misses in the already-crowded skies — something lawmakers apparently did not know.

Investigators issued their preliminary report Tuesday in the probe into the devastating crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter.

An American Eagle flight takes off from Reagan National Airport near where emergency crews work in the Potomac River on the crash site of an American Airlines plane on January 30, 2025 in Washington,