HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine raised the red flag on increased air traffic around Reagan National Airport more than a year before Wednesday evening's crash of an American Airlines passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter.

Sen. Mark Warner, who lives in northern Virginia, witnessed the aftermath of the tragedy and spent much of Thursday morning at Reagan National Airport. He addressed the Senate before confirmation hearings proceeded.

"There will be a time to figure out how, what happened and how we rectify it," Warner said. "But today, our thoughts and prayers ought to be with the families, and again, thanking our first responders."

Warner spoke out last year when the FAA was considering adding five additional flights to an already busy airstrip.

“Adding these additional flights will both cause, I believe, a safety challenge and increased delays,” Warner said.

It was a sentiment echoed by Sen. Tim Kaine when he said Thursday that "you're also increasing safety risk, because when you have one plane taking off or landing every minute, while other planes are circling, especially in very constricted air space, … you run the risk of serious challenge."

Kaine offered his condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the crash.

"We offer our profound condolences to them and our sorrow for this tragedy," Kaine said. "There are going to be a lot of questions, obviously, a lot of questions and that's what the NTSB's job is — to be an independent investigator of incidents like this. And they are here, we were in dialogue with them earlier."

10 On Your Side was at an event earlier Thursday with Rep. Bobby Scott, who shared his thoughts on the crash.

"Well, this is a very difficult time for all of the families involved," Scott said. "We've gotten air safety to the point where we don't have air crashes. It's been at least a decade since there's been any deaths on a commercial airline. And so, we have to find out what happened in this situation. I mean, our condolences go out to the families. There are many families involved."

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin praised the swiftness of the responders, from the Coast Guard and local fire rescue teams, up to the federal level, including the FBI, saying they continue their difficult work.