(Bloomberg) — Helicopter traffic should be permanently banned near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport during certain periods to alleviate congestion and avoid a repeat of the deadly mid-air collision that occurred there in January, the agency probing the accident recommended.
Specifically, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a press briefing that the agency is calling for a closure of Route 4 near the airport when certain runways are in use. Route 4 is the one that the US Army helicopter was using when it slammed into an American Airlines Group Inc. regional jet over the Potomac River.
The briefing coincided with the release of the agency’s preliminary report on the deadly midair collision.
The tragedy killed the three crew members on the Black Hawk and all 64 people on the jet, making it the worst US civil aviation disaster in decades.
The current circumstances at Reagan airport “pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety,” Homendy said. The agency is also recommending that the Federal Aviation Administration designate an alternative route that could be used when Route 4 is closed.
Homendy said analysis of an alerting system indicated there was at least one close call per month between a helicopter and commercial aircraft near Reagan airport between 2011 and 2024.
The midair collision has heightened concerns around aviation safety, particularly in highly congested areas. It’s also reignited debate around air-traffic control staffing and modernization — a longstanding challenge for the FAA.
Reagan Airport is home to the country’s busiest runway, feeding commercial planes into an airspace full of other civilian and military aircraft, including helicopters.
Since the crash, the NTSB has offered some clues about the factors that likely contributed to the disaster. The Black Hawk was flying above a 200-foot limit for helicopters in that area, its crew was likely wearing night-vision goggles that can limit peripheral vision, and the pilots on the military aircraft may have been getting faulty readings from devices that measure altitude.
In addition, the Black Hawk pilots appear to have missed a key instruction from air traffic controllers to “pass behind” the American CRJ-700 regional jet, the NTSB has said. The helicopter also wasn’t broadcasting its position using a technology known as ADS-B Out, which would help give air traffic controllers and other aircraft more precise information on its location.
The NTSB has said it’s unclear whether the Black Hawk crew purposely turned off ADS-B Out or if there was some other issue with their equipment. The FAA published a rule in 2019 to allow military aircraft to turn off ADS-B Out when performing sensitive operations, where broadcasting their position could compromise the mission.
But since the midair collision, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz and ranking member Maria Cantwell have raised concerns that the exemption is potentially being applied too liberally.
The CEOs of American Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. mentioned the crash as one factor that has dampened demand for domestic air travel this quarter, along with economic uncertainty, government job cuts and weather.
Following the crash, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced restrictions on helicopter traffic near Reagan Airport and plans to boost air-traffic control staffing, including by increasing starting salaries for candidates who enter the FAA’s academy. Duffy has also called for rapid upgrades to the air-traffic control system and enlisted the help of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to support the effort.
Bloomberg was the first to report last month that the FAA is testing the use of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet terminals at some of its facilities.
–With assistance from Mary Schlangenstein.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
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