The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday said it would “take a series of measures” to improve safety near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) after a deadly air collision between a commercial plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter on the Potomac River that killed 67 people.
The new guidelines come after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommends closure. Helicopter route Near DCA on Tuesday.
NTSB Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy said the location of helicopter route 4 and the final approach path to DCA runway 33 is “an unbearable risk to aviation safety by increasing the likelihood of an air collision.”
Jennifer Homendy's National Road Safety Commission Chairman said there were many potential errors that led to the crash on January 29th. (Pool)
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Following the directive, the FAA announced in a statement Friday that it would “permanently limit non-essential helicopter operations around the DCA” and “eliminate mixed helicopter and fixed wing traffic.”
It also permanently closes route 4 between Haynes Point and Wilson Bridge and evaluates the alternative helicopter route recommended by the NTSB.
According to a statement from the FAA, “If helicopters have to fly around airspace on emergency missions such as life-saving medical care, priority law enforcement, or presidential transport, the FAA will move them to a certain distance from the plane.”
US military UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter. (Patryk Ogorzalek/Agencja Wyborcza.pl byReuters, file)
According to the statement, the FAA will also prohibit helicopters carrying out emergency missions from simultaneous use of runways 15/33 and 4/22, operating near the DCA.
A fatal crash that occurred during the Army's “flight check” killed 67 people. There were no survivors.
Subsequent investigations by the NTSB revealed that helicopter crews may not have known they were flying too much and had not heard critical messages from air traffic controls before the fatal wreck.
Ronald Reagan: remains of the Potomac River near Washington National Airport, January 30th. (Kevin Lamarck/Reuters)
Furthermore, the military's use of “visual separation” has been criticised, claiming that some may have contributed to the disaster.
The FAA announced Friday that it would restrict the use of visual segregation for certain Coast Guard, Marines and Park Police Helicopter operations outside of limited airspace.
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Homedy said earlier reports suggested that helicopters and planes could be 75 feet apart while they were landing.
Officials said they identified 15,214 instances of the planes receiving alerts about helicopters between October 2021 and December 2024.
NTSB investigators look at what is called black boxes recovered from an American Airlines plane that crashed on January 29th. (NTSB)
The Army said the Black Hawk crews are very experienced and used to the busy skies around the capitals around the nation.
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Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said a temporary ban on helicopters near the airport would continue on Tuesday.
“Why didn't you know about the FAA?” Duffy asked about the flow of helicopters near the airport.
Louis Casiano of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
