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Madison Czopek
By Madison Czopek February 4, 2025

No, CNN wasn't reporting on the Potomac River plane crash hours ‘before it happened’

If Your Time is short

  • There’s no evidence that CNN reported on the Jan. 29 fatal collision between a commercial flight and a U.S. Army helicopter hours before the event took place.

  • Social media users claimed that screenshots of a CNN headline about the incident that showed publication dates of several "hours ago" proved the incident was planned or a false flag attack.

  • CNN began reporting on the crash after it happened, according to available report time stamps and a CNN spokesperson’s statement. 

Social media users shared screenshots of news articles about the Jan. 29 midair collision between an American Airlines flight and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, using the images to argue that CNN’s publication timeline was suspicious.

One screenshot shared on Instagram showed CNN sharing a video of the collision and a related CNN article titled, "FAA issues ground stop at Reagan National Airport after plane crashes in Potomac River," both posted "7 hours ago." It was unclear what time the screenshot was taken.  

"Here is 2 new angles of the crash from CNN," text overlaid on the image said, mangling the grammar. "Why did CNN report the accident 7 hours before it happened?"

"Part 2 False Flag," the post’s caption read. "Everything you need to know about the helicopter plane crash over Washington DC." 

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(Screenshot from Instagram)

A Threads user shared a screenshot of the CNN article with a publication time of "6 hours ago."

"CNN SOMEHOW KNEW and actively reported on the Potomac River collision 5 HOURS BEFORE it actually happened!" the Threads user wrote. "THAT IS NOT NORMAL. NOT AT ALL. THIS REEKS OF A FALSE FLAG!!!"   

Posts making the claim appeared on X and TikTok

The Instagram and Threads posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

A false flag is an incident, such as an attack, that’s designed to look like as if one person or party perpetrated it, although someone else did. Historically, the term referred to a military force. Now, baseless rumors about "false flag" incidents are common on social media after significant news events, such as mass shootings.

We found no evidence the deadliest aviation disaster in more than a decade was a false flag. All 64 passengers and crew members aboard American Airlines flight 5342 and all three people inside the Black Hawk helicopter were killed after a low-altitude midair collision above the Potomac River. Investigators are still evaluating its cause. 

The evidence presented in the social media posts does not prove it was orchestrated for a covert purpose.

CNN did not report on the collision before it happened. 

On Jan. 30, FBI divers recovered the American Airlines plane’s flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. Using the data recovered from the planes, National Transportation Safety Board officials released a timeline of the collision. The plane recorded sounds of impact at 8:47:59 p.m. EST, officials said Feb. 1.

We used the Nexis news archive to search CNN reports and transcripts for mentions of "plane" and "Potomac" and "collision" or "crash" on Jan. 29. That returned only three results — transcripts of CNN’s shows from 9 p.m. EST to 12 a.m. EST. The transcript of CNN’s "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" shows the crash was first reported at about 9:30 p.m.

"Some breaking news this hour, as a small plane has just crashed into the Potomac River, here in Washington, near the Ronald Reagan Airport, just outside Washington, D.C.," Collins said. "That’s according to the D.C. Fire Department."

Featured Fact-check

Nexis showed no mentions of the crash before Collins’ show — more than half an hour after the crash happened. 

"CNN covered the tragic news on the Potomac after it happened and after local sources and the FAA learned about it and confirmed the news," CNN spokesperson Dylan Rose Geerlings told PolitiFact. 

The earliest entry on CNN’s live crash updates web page was posted at 9:40 p.m. Time stamps from CNN’s video reports about the crash show they happened after the collision at 9:49 p.m. and 10:23 p.m. 

Publication data from other news organizations that republish CNN’s wire content corroborate that CNN’s reports came after the crash. 

WRAL, a North Carolina TV news channel and PolitiFact North Carolina partner, posted a CNN story about the crash at 9:42 p.m. — about an hour after the crash. It was the same story featured in several screenshots, titled, "FAA issues ground stop at Reagan National Airport after plane crashes in Potomac River."

WRCB, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, TV news channel, also posted the CNN story at 9:40 p.m., according to the page’s metadata. 

Our ruling

Social media posts claimed that CNN reported on the Potomac River plane and helicopter crash "hours before it happened."

There’s no evidence that CNN reported on the Jan. 29 fatal collision hours before the event occurred. CNN began reporting on the crash after it happened, according to available report time stamps and a CNN spokesperson’s statement. 

We rate this claim False.

RELATED: Did Donald Trump’s firing of aviation officials make the DC crash likelier? Doubtful, experts say

Our Sources

Threads post, Jan. 30, 2025 

Instagram post, Jan. 30, 2025

Instagram post, Jan. 31, 2025

X post, Jan. 30, 2025

Statement from Dylan Rose Geerlings, CNN spokesperson, Feb. 3, 2025

CNN Transcript, The Source with Kaitlan Collins episode January 29, 2025, Wednesday 09:00 PM EST, Jan. 29, 2025

TikTok post, Jan. 30, 2025

WRAL News, FAA issues ground stop at Reagan National Airport after plane crashes in Potomac River, Jan. 29, 2025

PolitiFact, ​​False flags: They’re real, but far less widespread than social media suggest, Feb. 8, 2022

PolitiFact, No, the Uvalde school shooting wasn’t a false flag, May 25, 2022

PolitiFact, No, the Brooklyn subway shooting was not a false flag attack, April 14, 2025

PolitiFact, Why do some people think mass shootings are staged every time? Aug. 8, 2019

NTSBGov, NTSB Media Briefing - PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 and Sikorsky H-60 military helicopter collision, Jan. 30, 2025

Logically.Facts, CNN did not publish articles on Washington DC plane crash hours before incident, Jan. 30, 2025

The Associated Press, Midair collision kills 67 people in the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century, Jan. 30, 2025

NPR, 55 of the 67 victims have been recovered from the D.C. plane crash, Feb. 2, 2025

WJLA-TV, NTSB releases timeline of DC plane crash from recovered black box recorders, Feb. 2, 2025

WUSA-TV, NTSB outlines timeline of events leading up to Flight 5432 crash with Army Black Hawk; questions remain, Feb. 1, 2025

NTSBGov, NTSB Media Briefing 3 - PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 & Sikorsky H-60 military helicopter collision, Feb. 1, 2025

CNN, 'This is just so staggering': CNN's Pete Muntean stunned by passenger aircraft crash, Jan. 29, 2025

CNN, ‘I saw sparks flying’: Witness describes moment of crash, Jan. 29, 2025

CNN, January 30, 2025 - DC plane collision news, Jan. 30, 2025

CNN, Videos appear to show midair collision over Potomac River, Jan. 29, 2025

WRCB-TV, What we know about the passenger plane collision near Washington, DC, Jan. 29, 2025

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Madison Czopek

No, CNN wasn't reporting on the Potomac River plane crash hours ‘before it happened’

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