D.C. plane crash: U.S. to reduce helicopter flights near busy airport

U.S. investigators looking into the cause of the January collision between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people recommended a ban on some helicopter flights Tuesday, saying the current setup “poses an intolerable risk.”

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy laid out frightening statistics about near misses to underscore the danger that has existed for years near Ronald Reagan National Airport and expressed anger that it took a midair collision for it to come to light.

In just over three years, she said, there were 85 close calls when a few feet in the wrong direction could have resulted in the same kind of accident that happened on Jan. 29 when the military helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet over the Potomac River as the plane was approaching the airport.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he’ll adopt the NTSB’s recommendations for the route where the midair collision occurred. He noted there will be some modifications in the guidelines to be released Wednesday, including allowing presidential flights and lifesaving missions.

Helicopters no longer will be “threading the needle” flying under landing planes, he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration also will use artificial intelligence to analyze data from every airport to make sure there aren’t similar dangers elsewhere, he said, adding there are other airports with cross-traffic.

Duffy said the hazards at Reagan airport should have been recognized earlier by the FAA.

“The data was there. It wasn’t effectively analyzed to see we had this risk,” he said.

The NTSB determined that the existing separation distance between planes and helicopters at Reagan airport is “insufficient and poses an intolerable risk to aviation safety,” Homendy said.

She said she was devastated for families that are grieving because they lost loved ones. Among the victims were 28 members of the figure skating community.

“It shouldn’t take tragedy to require immediate action,” she said.

Members of several families who lost loved ones said in a statement that the NTSB’s preliminary report showed this was not an isolated incident.

“It also reinforces what we, as the families of the victims, already suspected: serious, systemic failures in air travel safety cost our loved ones their lives and continues to threaten public safety,” the statement said.

Aviation lawyer Robert Clifford, who represents at least six families, said the airline had a responsibility to address known problems.

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“Those charged in transportation with the highest duty of care can’t run yellow lights, and they’ve been running flashing red lights for years, it sounds like, and it’s just pathetic,” he said.

Under the current practice helicopters and planes can be as close as 75 feet apart from each other during landing, Homendy said. Investigators have identified 15,000 instances of planes getting alerts about helicopters being in close proximity between October 2021 and December 2024, she said.

Investigators determined that planes got alerts to take evasive action because they were too close to a helicopter at least once a month between October 2011 and December 2024, Homendy said.

Jim Brauchle, an aviation attorney and former Air Force navigator, said he was stunned to learn from pilot friends after the crash that “near miss” warnings were a daily occurrence near Reagan.

“There’s no room for error there,” Brauchle said. “There should have been better oversight of that, and the fact that there wasn’t, you know, it’s just lucky.”

Following the midair collision, the FAA took steps to restrict helicopter flights around Reagan National Airport to ensure that planes and helicopters are no longer sharing the same airspace. Now flights are put on hold temporarily when helicopters need to pass by the airport.

The NTSB’s proposal would close a vital route for law enforcement, Coast Guard patrols and government operations flights.

Homendy said the NTSB is recommending that the FAA find a “permanent solution” for alternate routes farther away from the airport for helicopter traffic.

Investigators have said the helicopter may have had inaccurate altitude readings in the moments before the crash, and the crew may not have heard key instructions from air traffic controllers. The collision likely occurred at an altitude well above the 200-foot (61-meter) limit for that location as as the plane descended toward the helicopter.

The helicopter pilots may have also missed part of another communication, when the tower said the jet was turning toward a different runway, Homendy said last month.

The helicopter was on a “check” flight that night where the pilot was undergoing an annual test and a test on using night vision goggles, Homendy said.

The Army has said the Black Hawk crew was highly experienced, and accustomed to the crowded skies around the nation’s capital.

The NTSB in its ongoing investigation will look at the amount of traffic at Reagan and the staffing in the control tower to determine if either of those factors played a role in the collision. It will take more than a year to get the final NTSB report.

Aviation safety expert John Cox said he flew in and out of Reagan as a pilot in all different kinds of planes since the late 1970s and sometimes received collision alerts about nearby helicopters, but it was usually easy to see that the helicopter was going to pass behind the plane.

“That’s just something that occurred going in and out of there, and it worked successfully for decades,” said Cox, who is CEO of aviation safety consulting firm Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Cox said multiple things had to go wrong for this collision to happen.

Within just a month’s time earlier this year, there were four major aviation disasters in North America, most recently in mid-February when a Delta flight flipped and landed on its roof at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, injuring 21 people.

Those accidents and close calls left some worried about the safety of flying even though fatal crashes are rare and the track record of U.S. airlines is remarkably sound.

President Donald Trump blamed the midair collision on what he called an “obsolete” air traffic control system and promised to replace it. He also faulted the helicopter for flying too high.

Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports.

On Tuesday, Duffy said he will present a plan to Congress within the next couple weeks to completely overhaul the system with new technology.

Associated Press writer Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed to this report. Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio; Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.