In this January file photo, recovery crews search the Potomac River for victims of the Jan. 29 collision of an American Airlines jetliner and a Blackhawk helicopter. (Giuseppe LoPiccolo/Capital News Service)
By Mennatalla Ibrahim
WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board issued urgent safety recommendations Tuesday, warning that helicopter flights near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport pose serious safety risks and that one helicopter route should be closed during airport operations.
Hours later, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy accepted the recommendations on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration, promising long-term changes.
“Urgent recommendations require immediate action to prevent similar accidents or incidents when we issue them,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at an NTSB media briefing Tuesday. “We believe a critical safety issue must be addressed without delay.”
The recommendations were released alongside a preliminary investigative report into the Jan. 29 midair collision of an American Airlines jetliner and a military helicopter near Reagan National that killed 67 people.
The NTSB urged the FAA to ban helicopters from a four-mile stretch over the Potomac River when airport runway 15/33 is in use and to designate an alternative route when the area is closed, according to the published recommendations. The American jet was on final approach to runway 15/33 when the collision occurred.
Homendy said that there were warning signs before the January collision, citing data detailing more than 15,000 “occurrences” from October 2021 to December 2024 when commercial aircraft and helicopters at Reagan National were less than a mile apart and separated vertically by less than 400 feet. In 85 of those incidents, the aircraft were less than 1,500 feet apart and separated vertically by less than 200 feet.
Crash near Reagan National sparks debate over air traffic risks and airport expansion
The majority occurred during plane landings and at night, according to the NTSB’s report.
”We’re in a situation where we’re threading the needle, allowing helicopters to fly down the same airspace as landing aircraft,” Duffy said. “And why this information wasn’t studied and known before January 29 is an important question.”
Following the crash, Duffy restricted helicopter traffic around the airport through the end of March. He said those restrictions will continue in accordance with NTSB recommendations. Duffy said he also spoke with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about alternative military flight routes, with exceptions for presidential travel, life-saving operations and law enforcement.
The preliminary report does not identify any probable causes of the collision, as the NTSB is still in “the fact-finding phase” of its investigation, according to Homendy.
“We still have a lot of work to do in this investigation, so the report contains only the facts that we’re able to validate and release at this time,” Homendy said. “The easiest and quickest part of the investigation is determining what happened. The part that takes longer is the how and why.”
Tuesday’s NTSB media briefing was the fifth since the collision.
At a Feb. 14 briefing, Homendy told reporters that investigators believe that the helicopter crew was wearing night-vision goggles that would have limited their peripheral vision. She also said that cockpit conversations suggest that the helicopter crew may not have heard key instructions from air traffic controllers and had inaccurate altitude readings in the moments before the crash.
Duffy criticized the air traffic control system as outdated, relying on 25- to 30-year-old technology, including floppy disks and plug-in headphones, at a separate press conference Tuesday. He pledged to propose a plan in the coming weeks that would revolutionize the “antiquated” technology, seeking congressional approval and funding.
“We’re at a point where we can do this fast — three-and-a-half to four years for a brand-new air traffic control system. Gold-plated. Envy of the world,” he said. “It will greatly improve our safety … but it’s also going to improve the efficiency that we have in American air travel, which I think will mean less delays, less cancellations, and again, better safety.”
Despite concerns, Homendy reassured travelers.
“I just flew with my daughter out of DCA … aviation is incredibly safe,” she said. “However, there are safety issues and areas where we need to improve to make sure that we are at zero [incidents].”
– Capital News Service is a student-staffed reporting service operated by the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism. Stories are available at the CNS site and may be reprinted as long as credit is given to Capital News Service and, most importantly, to the students who produced the work.