DC plane crash: NTSB calls for immediate changes at Reagan airport

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday called for immediate changes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, saying the current helicopter routes around the busy airport "pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety" in the wake of January's collision that killed 67 people.

The NTSB is recommending that the Federal Aviation Administration permanently ban helicopter operations near Reagan when runways 15 and 33 are in use and designate an alternative helicopter route for pilots, Chairman Jennifer Homendy said during a news conference.

After Homendy's announcement, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy quickly said the Department of Transportation will immediately follow the NTSB's recommendations and keep helicopter restrictions in place, noting that some modifications might be made to the current restrictions. (Duffy put a temporary ban in place after the crash; that ban was set to expire at the end of March.)

On Tuesday, families of the victims of the deadly collision said in a statement that the report highlights how "serious, systemic failures in air travel safety cost our loved ones their lives and continues to threaten public safety."

"This was not an isolated incident, but a symptom of broader failures in our aviation safety system," the statement read. "If the necessary reforms had been implemented sooner, Flight 5342 likely would have landed safely and our family members would be home with us."

During the new conference, Homendy outlined a history of close calls at Reagan and said the NTSB continues to investigate the devastating crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed everyone on board both aircraft.

The crash happened on the night of Jan. 29 when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people on board, was about to land at Reagan (DCA). The three soldiers in the helicopter were conducting an annual training flight and night vision goggle check at the time of the collision.

Between October 2021 and December 2024, there were 944,179 commercial operations at Reagan, Homendy said. During that time, there were 15,214 close proximity events between commercial airplanes and helicopters with a lateral separation of less than 1 nautical mile and a vertical separation of less than 400 feet, she said. There were 85 events where the lateral separation was less than 1,500 feet and the vertical separation was less than 200 feet, she said.

Helicopters on "the Route 4 helicopter corridor at the maximum authorized altitude of 200 feet could have only about 75 feet of vertical separation from an airplane on landing approach to Runway 33," the NTSB said in a statement. "Vertical separation could potentially be even less than 75 feet depending on the helicopter's lateral distance from the Potomac River shoreline or if an approaching airplane was below the designated visual glidepath to Runway 33."

Homendy said 75 feet is an "intolerable risk to aviation safety."

"It does make me angry. But it also makes me feel incredibly devastated for families that are grieving because they lost loved ones," Homendy said. "It shouldn't take tragedy like this to occur. Unfortunately, one did, and so we are calling on action, but there clearly were indicators where safety trending could have occurred."

American Airlines said in a statement, "We continue to mourn the lives lost in the tragic accident involving Flight 5342. Were grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board's urgent safety recommendations to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its thorough investigation."

Encounters between helicopters and commercial aircraft near Reagan show that, from 2011 through 2024, a vast majority of reported events occurred on approach to landing, Homendy said.

At least one Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) resolution advisory -- the most serious warning that tells the pilots to take immediate evasive action to avoid a collision -- was triggered per month at Reagan due to proximity to a helicopter from 2011 to 2024, Homendy said.

In more than half of the encounters the NTSB reviewed, the helicopter may have been flying above the altitude restriction, Homendy said. Two-thirds of the encounters occurred at night.

The NTSB's investigation is ongoing. Homendy said the NTSB will conduct a number of simulations, conduct additional interviews, and continue to examine radio altimeters, barometric altimeters and additional electronics.

After Homendy's news conference, Duffy also addressed the media on Tuesday, and he criticized the FAA and the previous administration for not identifying the hot spots earlier.

The FAA has deployed artificial intelligence tools to look through the data and identify potential hot spots in the airspace at other airports, Duffy said. The AI technology is currently in place at 12 airports, and he said the FAA plans to incorporate it across the country.

"If there's another DCA-esque situation out there, our AI tools will help us identify those and take corrective actions preemptively, as opposed to retroactively," he said.

Duffy also further discussed upgrades that he said will be made to runway safety and technology. To expedite the process, Duffy said he will ask Congress for money up front.

Homendy said last month there was no indication the helicopter crew was aware of the impending situation.

The soldiers may have had "bad data" on the altitude from their altimeter, as the pilots had differing altitudes in the seconds before the crash, Homendy said. One helicopter pilot thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet, she noted.

The transmission from the tower that instructed the helicopter to go behind the plane may not have been heard by the crew because the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same second and stepped on the transmission from air traffic control, or ATC, the NTSB added.

The Black Hawk crew was likely wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight, Homendy said.