The USA’s top transportation safety investigator has called out the Federal Aviation Administration for failing over years to recognise and address the risk of collisions exactly where a helicopter and passenger jet collided in January, killing 67 people.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) uncovered 15,214 instances of “close-proximity events” involving commercial aircraft and helicopters near Ronald Reagan Washington National airport between October 2021 and December 2024, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said on 11 March.
“The data we have pulled is from a voluntary safety reporting system that FAA could have used any time,” says Homendy, calling the FAA’s failure to act sooner “stronger than an oversight.”
“It makes me angry. It also makes me devastated for the families that are grieving,” Homendy says. “There clearly were indicators, where safety trending could occur.”
Homendy spoke the day the NTSB released its preliminary report into the 29 January collision of a PSA Airlines MHIRJ CRJ700 and US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk near Ronald Reagan Washington National airport. At the time, the helicopter had been traversing a busy helicopter flight corridor called Route 4, which runs along the Potomac River. But the Black Hawk was flying at 300ft – exceeding the 200ft maximum permitted altitude for that corridor – when it struck the CRJ700.
Both aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River, killing all 64 people on the CRJ700 and the three crew on the Black Hawk.
The 15,214 “close proximity events” cited by the NTSB involved incidents when helicopters and commercial aircraft came within 1nm (1.9km) laterally and 122m (400ft) vertically. Of those, the NTSB found 85 instances involving separation of less than 457m laterally and 61m vertically.
“Initial analysis found that at least one traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) resolution advisory was triggered per month due to proximity to a helicopter,” the NTSB’s report adds. “In over half of these instances, the helicopter may have been above the route altitude restriction. Two-thirds of the events occurred at night.”
On 11 March the NTSB also made “urgent” recommendations to the FAA to address “the potential for midair collisions between traffic on helicopter Route 4 and airplanes” operating from runway 15/33.
The FAA already temporarily shut down parts of Route 4 in response to the accident.
The NTSB is now calling on the agency to close Route 4 when aircraft are using runway 15/33, and to create an “alternative helicopter route” that allows pilots to circumvent the closed portion.
Speaking on 11 March, US Department of Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said his agency will continue the restrictions on Route 4 to ensure commercial aircraft and helicopters are not crossing paths. The DOT will also release more details about the restrictions on 12 March, Duffy says.
Addressing the NTSB’s findings of numerous prior close calls, Duffy says, ”Why this information wasn’t studied and known before January 29 is an important question… Does it piss me off? Yes. The data was there. The fact that it wasn’t appropriately analysed makes me angry.”
The NTSB also notes that even helicopters adhering to Route 4’s 200ft altitude cap can come within 75ft of passenger jets – way too close.
“Existing separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft landing on runway 33 are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety,” the NTSB says.
The investigation into the cause of the 31 January accident is ongoing. Homendy has previously said that the Black Hawk’s “pressure altitude parameter” appears to have been invalid, possibly affecting that aircraft’s systems and potentially leaving its pilots with inaccurate altitude readings in the cockpit.
