Deadly DC plane crash leads transportation safety board to make urgent recommendations
On Jan. 29, an American Airlines jet with 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers while the plane was coming in for a landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport. The crash sent both aircraft plunging into the Potomac River.
All 67 people aboard the two aircrafts were killed.
'Urgent recommendations require immediate action to prevent similar accidents or incidents,' Homendy said. 'When we issue them, we believe a critical safety issue must be addressed without delay. For this investigation, we're reviewing airport operations and prior incidents, including near-mid-air collision events.'
There were 944,179 commercial operations at the airport between October 2021 and December 2024. Over that span, there were 15,214 occurrences or close-proximity events between commercial airplanes and helicopters, meaning aircrafts were within one nautical mile of colliding with a helicopter and vertical separation was less than 400 feet, according to the transportation board investigation. Two-thirds of the events occurred in the evening.
'We remain concerned about future midair collisions at [Ronald Reagan National Airport], which is why we are recommending a permanent solution today,' Homendy said.
Homendy recommends the Federal Aviation Administration permanently prohibit helicopter travel along Route 4 between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when two of the runways are being used for departures and arrivals at the airport. An alternative helicopter route that can be used to 'facilitate travel between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when that segment of Route 4 is closed.'
'We've determined that the existing separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft landing on runway 33 are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing a midair collision at [Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport],' Homendy said.
The Black Hawk's cockpit voice and flight data recorder does not record information about date, time or position, according to Homendy.
The changes are needed amid ongoing concerns by the board about potentially more collisions occurring between helicopters and planes near Washington National Airport.
'As I mentioned in the press conference, there is inconsistency in the data, which led us to declare the press altitude parameter on the Black Hawk is invalid,' Homendy said.
The NTSB continues to investigate the collision.
'Right now, we are still in the fact-finding phase of this investigation,' Homendy said. 'I often say, 'The easiest and quickest part of the investigation is determining what happened. The part that takes longer is the how and why.''
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