Nearly two years after the midair collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport, an internal memo shares details about the toll the disaster took on first responders.
After the Jan. 29, 2025 crash, responders spent “hours in freezing conditions, handling dismembered bodies, pediatric victims and severely mutilated remains,” according to an internal Arlington County Fire Department memo obtained by WTOP.
The April 2026 memo was written by an Arlington fire captain “on behalf of firefighters who responded” to the crash, and sent to Fire Chief David Povlitz.
The memo mentions “critically inadequate post-incident personnel support” for the 20 county fire department personnel who took part in the multiagency response.
“The resources, assistance and meaningful follow-up were wholly inadequate for the specific trauma our members endured,” the memo said.
The document said many responders have experienced depression, family strain, alcohol use, sleep disturbances and eroded trust in leadership. It also said many responders did not want to speak out for fear of retribution.
The memo stated responders quickly exhausted their allotted workers’ compensation therapy sessions and were then forced to pay significant out-of-pocket costs for continued care. It further said the department did not apply lessons about trauma and recovery learned after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The reported mental health struggles make sense to Matthew Frasca, a licensed clinical professional counselor and owner of First Line Counseling in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He specializes in counseling first responders.
“If they feel that leadership is not supporting them,” he told WTOP, “it really starts to affect morale and affects people’s internal beliefs about their value (and) the job that they did.”
Robert Messeri, co-founder of the group Paws of War, which pairs therapy dogs with veterans and first responders, said he has seen similar situations play out elsewhere.
“When there isn’t a support mechanism … they self-medicate,” he said. “It just spirals.”
In response to a WTOP request for comment, Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Cpt. Jamie Jill disputed claims of insufficient support.
He said members of a peer support team reached out to every firefighter involved and that the county’s Office of Public Safety Wellness offered therapy along with referrals to specialized trauma providers. He also said workers’ compensation claims were submitted by the county fire department for each responder.
Jill said that they were nonetheless up against “two primary barriers that impact access to timely and appropriate mental healthcare for first responders.”
The first barrier, he said, is increased demand for mental health services nationally combined with persistently low insurance reimbursement rates.
The second, Jill said, is that under workers’ compensation law, “There are some time limits on coverage and barriers associated with preexisting conditions that can impact first responders.”
Frasca told WTOP that the assertions about insurance rates are accurate — and that responders are often left holding the bag as a result.
“Some insurance companies reimburse so low, a lot of therapists don’t take them or they’re difficult to work with,” he said. “And so it’s hard to find people that are in-network that have specialty training in certain things that can provide these services at a reasonable cost, especially if it’s longer-term.”
When it comes to workers’ compensation providers, Frasca said, “Some are really good and they approve benefits quickly and you get paid quickly. Some deny it, and it can be a nightmare to get reimbursed.”
“So a lot of times people use their private insurance because they don’t want to have to go through the headaches of workers’ comp,” Frasca added.
“If people are having financial trouble, all of a sudden $10, $20, $30 a week can make a big difference, or a deductible can make it hard to get to those resources.”
Kevin Kelly, a retired New York City firefighter and 9/11 responder, said a private entity may need to fill the void.
“If there’s someone who could step up or someone on the outside who’s looking in, that could come in and help them set up a foundation — to get that built … would be tremendous,” Kelly told WTOP.
“They have to find some kind of means and some kind of way to get to keep that (therapy) running because it’s essential to keeping the men and women of the department fresh and stable,” he said.
Frasca said that wherever the blame falls, it’s important for responders to keep taking care of themselves.
“After an event like that, anything you experience is going to be normal,” he said.
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