NTSB recommends banning some helicopter operations near DC airport

US air crash investigators have recommended restricting helicopter flights in certain areas near Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport following January’s deadly mid-air collision.

Citing an “intolerable risk to aviation safety”, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urged authorities to designate an alternative helicopter route when two runways -15 and 33 – are in use.

All 64 people aboard an American Airlines flight and three crew members on an army helicopter died after the mid-air collision on 29 January.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated that the separation between helicopters and jets in the area was insufficient, raising the “chances of a mid-air collision”.

Data used by the NTSB for their preliminary report shows that the proximity between helicopters and aircrafts have triggered at least one alert per month between 2011 and 2024, said Ms Homendy.

This data could have been used by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) – the US government agency in charge of civil aviation – to determine if there was a problem.

This is “stronger than an oversight”, she said. “It shouldn’t take tragedy to require immediate action.”

Ms Homendy also spoke to concerns around air traffic controllers, saying staffing and communications between them is still being investigated.

President Donald Trump had earlier suggested without evidence that diversity programmes had played a role in the accident, claiming that the FAA had focused “on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities”.

The crash happened when an American Airlines flight that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, was coming in for a landing at Reagan National Airport and collided with a Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

The army helicopter had taken off from Fort Belvoir, close by in Virginia, on a training mission.

Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River, and rescue attempts proved unsuccessful.

Recordings of air traffic control conversations suggest a controller warned the helicopter about the jet, just before the collision.

The airport, located just outside Washington DC, is one of the busiest in the US, with nearly 400 daily flights to 98 destinations.

Pilots interviewed by the BBC after the crash noted that flying in and out of the small airport, surrounded by restricted airspace, can be challenging.

“There are times when we watch planes land and find ourselves thinking, ‘Whoa, that was close,'” said pilot Mo Khimji, noting that strong crosswinds can push a plane into restricted airspace “by a whisker” if the pilot is not careful.

Additionally, the airspace is shared with various types of aircraft, including Air Force One, which carries the US president, and commercial flights.