US safety board finds FAA failures led to fatal mid-air collision

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board found on Tuesday that a series of systemic failures by the Federal Aviation Administration led to a devastating mid-air collision that killed 67 people last year.

The January 2025 collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) was the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades.

The NTSB determined the accident was caused by the FAA’s decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes and its failure to review data and act on recommendations to move helicopter traffic away from the airport.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the airport’s air traffic control tower personnel repeatedly sought to raise concerns only to get “squashed by management.”

“This was 100% preventable,” Homendy said. “There’s definitely need for serious reform.”

The board also cited failings in the Army safety culture and the Army pilot’s failure to properly see and avoid the passenger airplane.

In December, the Justice Department said the federal government was liable in the crash due to the actions of the Army helicopter and the FAA air traffic controller.

The maximum altitude for the route the helicopter was taking was 200 feet (61 m), but the collision occurred at an altitude of nearly 300 feet.

HEARING SHEDS LIGHT ON FAA CULTURE

A hearing in Washington on Tuesday quickly turned into a lengthy rebuke of the FAA, shedding light on serious communication, culture and safety issues surrounding the 26th busiest U.S. airport which has the single busiest U.S. runway and is regularly used by members of Congress.

The FAA said it would diligently consider the recommendations and said after the collision the agency immediately acted to improve safety.

“We reduced the DCA hourly arrival rate from 36 to 26 and restricted helicopter traffic in the surrounding airspace,” the FAA said, noting the arrival rate was currently set at 30. 

The agency said it was now “acting proactively to mitigate risks before they affect the traveling public.”

The NTSB displayed dramatic animation of the collision and some anguished families wearing photographs of their loved ones left the hearing room before it was shown.

Homendy said airlines had reached out to her to say “the next mid-air (collision) is going to be at Burbank, and nobody at FAA is paying attention.” She added, “people are raising red flags.”

The FAA said it had made changes around the airport in California. Reuters reported in October the FAA was scrutinizing airplane traffic flows around Hollywood Burbank Airport and Van Nuys Airport in the Los Angeles area, which are fewer than 10 miles (16 km) apart and serve a mix of aircraft with closely spaced arrival and departure paths.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO FAA

The NTSB made more than 30 recommendations to the FAA, citing a series of failures before the Washington crash. “They better do them all,” Homendy said.

Since 2021, there had been 15,200 air separation incidents near Reagan airport between commercial airplanes and helicopters, including 85 close-call events.

The NTSB found issues with how the FAA handles traffic at Reagan and that it rejected advice to add hot spots to a helicopter route chart. Homendy said the FAA also did not review the helicopter routes annually as required and had routes that were not designed to ensure proper separation.

The NTSB also said the air traffic controller should have issued a safety alert, which “may have allowed action to be taken to avert the collision.”

Homendy said a key safety system known as ADS-B In and Out could have given the passenger plane pilot an alert 59 seconds before the collision and the helicopter crew 48 seconds before. Lawmakers are trying to mandate the technology.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Matthew Lewis and Jamie Freed)