Safety Concerns Rise After Fatal Crash at Reagan National Airport

Air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had raised safety concerns for years, well before a tragic midair collision on January 29, 2025, that resulted in 67 fatalities when a military helicopter collided with a commercial airliner over the Potomac River.

“All the warning signs were there,” remarked Emily Hanoka, a former air traffic controller at the airport, during a CBS’s “60 Minutes” segment. “We set up a regional safety council, and whenever a controller filed a safety report, another would gather data to back it up. Lots of recommendations were proposed, but they never gained much traction.”

Hanoka highlighted the immense pressure placed on controllers due to the high volume of traffic—approximately 800 flights each day—compounded by an already tight runway system.

“Sometimes it’s so congested that it exceeds the airport’s capacity,” Hanoka added, noting that she had left her position just before the fatal incident that night.

Interestingly, the crash involved a military helicopter flying at an improper altitude rather than a commercial airliner. The U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter struck an American Eagle regional jet as it approached Reagan National Airport, leading to the deaths of everyone aboard. Following the crash, federal authorities issued urgent safety recommendations aimed at segregating military and commercial air traffic near the airport.

Since the incident, there have been efforts to tighten safety protocols. Alarmingly, there were several near misses reported the day before the crash, with 85 close collisions documented between 2021 and 2024 under the Biden administration.

“There were clear flaws in the system,” Hanoka commented. “Controllers have been sounding the alarm for years, saying this is not safe, and we need to change it. But nothing has changed.”

The airport typically accommodates around 25 million passengers annually—10 million over its intended capacity. To manage this, Hanoka described “squeeze play” operations, where aircraft take off and land in rapid succession on a single runway.

“A squeeze play is when you know things are going to be very tight; everything hinges on aircraft timing and deceleration,” she explained. “It’s quite a standard operation.”

Hanoka also noted the challenges faced by new controllers. “A new controller might come in from another facility, check things out, and say ‘No way,’” she recounted, indicating that about half of trainees would refuse to continue their training under those conditions.

Last week, the FAA changed its approach to airspace management, moving away from visual separation between helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft and implementing radar-based separation. Restrictions on certain helicopter operations near Reagan National were also enforced.

Hanoka’s concerns align with findings from researchers, as the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to systemic failures within the FAA, labeling the incident as preventable due to overreliance on visual separation and ongoing risks in the airspace around Reagan National.