The Black Hawk is a US Army workhorse helicopter. It has been flying for decades. One tragically collided with a passenger jet this week.

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

The Post can reveal that grave lapses and miscommunications in one of the most crowded and complex patches of sky in the US are likely to blame.

Investigators found the recording devices, or black boxes, from the American Airlines plane that collided with a helicopter Wednesday near Washington.

A few minutes before the jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked American Airlines Flight 5342 if it could do so on a shorter runway, and the pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the jet to land, and flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.

An American Airlines jet collided midair with a military helicopter near Reagan National Airport. Four crew and 60 passengers were on board the plane.

The Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines commuter plane near Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia Wednesday was on a “training flight” when it crashed into the Potomac River, according to the military service branch.

According to the FAA, an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided into a 60-passenger flight landing at DCA midair.

He indicated 27 bodies had been recovered from the airplane, and one from the helicopter.

The Army official said that the pilots were on a routine training flight along a familiar flight path that isn't particularly complicated.