PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The midair collision between a passenger and a military helicopter, that left 67 people dead in Washington, D.C., remained on the minds of passengers traveling through Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday.
Flight 5342 and the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided just before 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Wreckage from the crash fell into the Potomac River where recovery operations continued Thursday.
Travelers we spoke with said they know airline travel is very safe.
"I typically don't have travel anxiety," said Missy Loftis of Nashville, Tennessee. "I just don't like travel days but it was different today."
Still, there were some understandable worries.
"I thought I was gonna have a panic attack. I thought they were going to have to let me off the plane," added Sabrina Smith of Florence, Alabama.
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A data analysis since 2008 found there have been no midair collisions involving a commercial airplane, but during that time there have been 23 near-miss collisions - four of which caused serious injuries or death.
"Unfortunately, this wasn't a near miss. It was an actual collision. So that's really tragic," said John Gagliano, an aviation attorney and pilot.
Gagliano said the plane had a collision avoidance system but it is automatically turned off below 1000 feet.
"The reason for that is it sees all of the aircraft on the ground electronically, and it wants to give evasive maneuvers to the aircraft," said Gagliano.
Military aircraft and training are commonplace in the skies above metro D.C., but not as much in Philadelphia.
But the Philadelphia region does have civilian planes and helicopters flying in our airspace.
That said, Gagliano stressed we have the safest national airspace in the world, but mistakes and human error happen.
"I'm convinced that there was confusion and they didn't actually see the American jet, or else they wouldn't have flown into its flight path," he said. "The American jet also has a responsibility to see and avoid. I'm also convinced that they didn't see the Army helicopter."