'There's a serious safety issue', investigators say following DCA mid-air collision
The chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board says "there's a serious safety issue" in the airspace surrounding Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The NTSB's Jennifer Homendy called on the Federal Aviation Administration to implement several urgent safety recommendations during a Tuesday news conference. Her comments followed the release of a preliminary investigation into the January 29 mid-air collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, which was attempting to land at DCA airport. Both aircraft plunged into the icy Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
Homendy described the flight patterns around DCA as "an intolerable risk" as helicopters and commercial planes operate in close proximity to each other in the busy airspace over the nation's capital. She says an NTSB analysis found that in a 13-year period from 2011 to 2024 there was at least one "close call" each month between a commercial plane operating at DCA and a helicopter.
In over half of those encounters, Homendy said, the helicopter was operating higher than it should have been and two-thirds of the instances were at night.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/11/nx-s1-5324543/ntsb-dca-mid-air-collision-american-black-hawk
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