OAN Staff Abril Elfi
1:00 PM – Wednesday, March 12, 2025
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that over 15,000 “near-miss events” between helicopters and planes at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport have occurred in the past three years.
Advertisement
On Tuesday, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy explained that helicopter routes near Reagan National airport regularly prompt an “intolerable risk to aviation safety.”
She further stated that there were over 15,000 “near miss” instances, in which helicopters and jets at the airport came within one nautical mile and 400 vertical feet of one another, between October 2021 and December 2024.
“We remain concerned about the significant potential for future midair collisions at DCA,” Homendy said.
“We are recommending a permanent solution today,” Homendy added, later noting that their findings had left her “angry” that nothing had been done to mitigate this risk sooner.
The NTSB has also asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ban helicopters from flying near the airport, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, when Runway 15/33 is in use.
The existing allowable distances between planes and helicopters “are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chances of a midair collision at DCA,” Homendy told reporters, using the airport’s code.
“Let me repeat: that they pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety. We’re therefore recommending today that the FAA permanently prohibit operations on helicopters … between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge,” she said.
A Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Airlines regional flight landing at Reagan from Wichita, Kansas, on January 29th — while the soldiers were on a training assignment, killing all 64 people on the plane and three in the helicopter.
The cause of the crash is currently being investigated.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below
