US probes near miss between Southwest Airlines jet and helicopter

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it is sending a team to investigate an October 29 close call between a Southwest Airlines jet and a medical helicopter near Cleveland International Airport in Ohio.

The NTSB said the two aircraft experienced a loss of separation – meaning they came closer to each other than the required minimum safe distance – when Southwest Flight 1333 was making its final approach on a flight from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). 

This prompted the Southwest pilot to abort the landing. Southwest said the Boeing 737 landed safely a short time later.

The NTSB and Southwest did not disclose the number of passengers and crew aboard the airliner. The helicopter appears to have been transporting a patient at the time of the incident, based on how it was identifying itself at the time.

Southwest said in a statement on Sunday it “appreciates the professionalism of our crew in responding to the situation. We are engaged with the National Transportation Safety Board and will support the investigation.” 

A representative for the medical transport company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter on January 29 killed 67 people near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside the U.S. capital and caused alarm about close calls between commercial airplanes and helicopters.

Aviation tracking website Flightradar24 said air traffic control audio and flight tracking showed that the Southwest plane was forced to deviate from its course to avoid the Eurocopter helicopter that was passing in front of it in the Cleveland incident. Both aircraft were at 2,075 feet (632 meters) altitude at one point and were as close as 0.56 miles (0.9 km) of separation, the site said.

An air traffic controller asked the medical helicopter to go behind the other flight traffic in the vicinity of the airport but the helicopter pilot responded that it “would be better if we could go above it and in front of it if we can,” and the controller agreed, according to audio posted by Flightradar24.

The Southwest captain said in a report to the Federal Aviation Administration that it was an “extremely close” incident and required immediate action to avoid a collision, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The FAA last month said it was modifying helicopter routes in the vicinity of BWI and Washington Dulles International Airport to add buffer zones after the January crash as well as at Reagan.

The FAA has faced criticism from U.S. lawmakers and NTSB investigators for failing to act on reports of near-miss incidents before the January 29 collision. The Army Black Hawk helicopter was above the maximum permitted altitude at the time of the crash. Both the helicopter and airliner crashed into the Potomac River.

In May, the FAA barred the Army from flying helicopters near the Pentagon after a May 1 close call that forced two civilian planes to abort landings.

The NTSB disclosed in March that since 2021 there had been 15,200 loss of air separation incidents near Reagan between commercial airplanes and helicopters, including 85 close-call events.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham)