The NTSB's recommendations were quickly accepted by the Transportation Department.
In the wake of the collision in January that resulted in the deaths of 67 people, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a call for immediate changes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Tuesday. The NTSB stated that the current helicopter routes that surround the busy airport "pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety." 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.
Following Homendy's announcement, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy quickly stated that the Department of Transportation would immediately adhere to the recommendations of the NTSB and maintain helicopter restrictions, noting that some modifications could be made to the restrictions currently in place. (Immediately following the accident, Duffy imposed a temporary ban, which was set to expire at the end of March.)
According to the statement, "This was not an isolated incident, but a symptom of broader failures in our aviation safety system." "Flight 5342 probably would have landed safely and our family members would have been with us home if the necessary reforms had been implemented sooner," Homendy talked about Reagan's past of close calls and said that the NTSB is still looking into the terrible crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Everyone on board both aircraft was killed by an Army Black Hawk helicopter. The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 passengers aboard, was about to land at Reagan (DCA) when it crashed on the night of Jan. 29. At the time of the collision, the three soldiers in the helicopter were going through an annual training flight and checking their night vision goggles. According to Homendy, there were 944,179 commercial operations at Reagan from October 2021 to December 2024. She stated that there were 15,214 close proximity events with a lateral separation of less than 1 nautical mile and a vertical separation of less than 400 feet between commercial airplanes and helicopters during that time. According to her, there were 85 events with lateral and vertical separations of less than 200 feet and 1,500 feet, respectively.
The National Transportation Safety Board stated in a statement that 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." "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 irritate me. Homendy stated, "But it also makes me feel incredibly devastated for families who are grieving the loss of loved ones." "A tragedy like this shouldn't be necessary. Unfortunately, one did, and so we are calling on action, but there clearly were indicators where safety trending could have occurred."
"We continue to mourn the lives lost in the tragic accident involving Flight 5342," American Airlines stated in a statement. We’re grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board's urgent safety recommendations to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its thorough investigation."
According to Homendy, encounters between commercial aircraft and helicopters near Reagan demonstrate that, from 2011 to 2024, the vast majority of reported incidents occurred on the approach to landing. Homendy stated that from 2011 to 2024, due to Reagan's proximity to a helicopter, at least one Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) resolution advisory, the most severe warning instructing pilots to take immediate evasive action to avoid a collision, was triggered monthly. According to Homendy, the helicopter may have been flying above the limit of altitude in more than half of the encounters examined by the NTSB. The majority of encounters took place at night. The NTSB is still looking into the matter. According to Homendy, the NTSB will continue to investigate radio altimeters, barometric altimeters, and additional electronic devices, conduct additional interviews, and carry out a number of simulations.
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.
Duffy stated that the FAA has utilized artificial intelligence tools to examine the data and locate potential airspace hotspots at other airports. He stated that the FAA intends to implement the AI technology nationwide and that 12 airports currently use it. "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. Duffy said he will ask Congress for money upfront to speed up the process. Homendy stated last month that the helicopter crew did not appear to be aware of the impending situation. According to Homendy, the pilots had varying altitudes just before the crash, so the soldiers may have had "bad data" on their altimeter's altitude. She made the observation that one of the helicopter pilots thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet. The NTSB added that the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same moment and stepped on the transmission from air traffic control, or ATC, causing the transmission from the tower instructing the helicopter to go behind the plane to not be heard by the crew. Homendy stated that the Black Hawk crew probably had on night vision goggles throughout the flight.