Safety Board Calls For Helicopter Ban On Certain Routes Near Dc Airport: 'intolerable Risk'

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday issued two “urgent” safety recommendations after discovering thousands of close calls between helicopters and planes near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following a midair collision in January.

The board recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) permanently ban certain helicopter routes around the airport, also known as DCA, when specific runways are in use following the Jan. 29 crash between an Army helicopter and a commercial jet that killed 67 people.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called the existing separation distances between helicopter traffic and aircraft landing at certain runways at the airport “insufficient” and “an intolerable risk to aviation safety.” 

Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later said the FAA will adopt certain restrictions on helicopter routes around DCA, with details on the route changes to be given to pilots on Wednesday.

“At best, we’re in a situation where we’re threading the needle allowing helicopters to fly down the same airspace as landing aircraft,” Duffy told reporters. “And why this information wasn’t studied and known before January 29 is an important question.”

The recommended ban is a direct result of the devastating accident between Black Hawk pilots who collided with an American Airlines plane, killing all those on board both aircraft. 

The initial investigation found the helicopter was flying at 278 feet — above the 200-foot limit for that location — when it crashed into Flight 5342 just before 9 p.m. as the jet was en route to DCA from Wichita, Kan. The collision sent both aircraft plunging into the Potomac River, the deadliest such accident since 2001. 

By Homendy’s telling, the incident was poised to happen after years of thousands of close calls around the airport, located in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from the U.S. Capitol. Military helicopters regularly conduct exercises, local law enforcement patrol the area, and government officials are ferried to and from certain locations in the area.

She pointed to 15,214 reported occurrences of “close proximity events” between commercial airplanes and helicopters near the airport between October 2021 and December 2024 - including 85 near misses or close calls.

What’s more, at least one traffic alert and collision avoidance system was triggered per month from 2011 to 2024 due to a plane’s proximity to a helicopter. 

“It does make me angry, but it also makes me feel incredibly devastated for families that are grieving because they lost loved ones,” she told reporters at a press conference to unveil a preliminary investigation report.

“It shouldn't take a tragedy like this to occur. Unfortunately, one did, and so we are calling on action, but there clearly were indicators where safety trending could have occurred,” she added.

In a separate press conference, Duffy said that while “the data was there, it wasn’t effectively analyzed” to see the risks at DCA.

“It makes me angry,” he said. “Maybe there was too much data coming in, and it’s easy, maybe, to look back and say, ‘you should have seen it.’ Looking forward, it can be more challenging, but it seems pretty clear someone should have seen because pilots were talking about . . . these near misses, it’s not like it was hidden in the data somewhere. If someone was paying attention, someone wa on the job, they would have seen this.”

Duffy also said he spoke with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier Tuesday about giving the military and Defense Department a route around the restricted airspace. He added that there will be exclusions for presidential air travel, vice presidential air travel, life-saving missions or law enforcement.

The NTSB is specifically recommending that the FAA permanently prohibit operations on helicopter Route 4, a four-mile stretch between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge along the Potomac River, while runways 15 and 33 are being used for departures and arrivals at DCA. 

Because a total closure of the route would restrict a vital aviation corridor used for law enforcement activity, Coast Guard patrols and government operations, the board also recommended that the FAA designate an alternative helicopter route that can be used when that specific segment of Route 4 is closed. 

The FAA had already temporarily barred most helicopters near the airport until it could review the NTSB's initial findings.

The NTSB preliminary report released Tuesday details the board’s fact-finding efforts, but does not offer analysis on what caused the collision. 

Initial findings on the crash, released last month, suggested that the Black Hawk pilots may have had “bad data” on the altitude they were flying at and may not have heard vital information given by air traffic control to fly behind the passenger jet seconds before the crash.

Homendy also stressed that despite the new recommendations, “aviation is incredibly safe,” even in and out of the nation’s capital.

“I just flew with my daughter out of DCA,” she said. “Aviation is incredibly safe. DCA is where I always fly out of. I say often that your biggest risk is in your personal vehicle when you’re going to and from the aircraft at the airport. Aviation is safe.”

Following th NTSB announcement, American Airlines expressed support for the recommendations, as did the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the largest pilot union in the world. 

“We continue to mourn the lives lost in the tragic accident involving Flight 5342. We’re grateful for the National Transportation Safety Board’s urgent safety recommendations to restrict helicopter traffic near DCA and for its thorough investigation,” American Airlines said in a statement.

And ALPA President Capt. Jason Ambrosi said that as the airline industry processes recent accidents, “it’s more important than ever for all operators in our national airspace to remain vigilant and return to fundamentals,” according to a Tuesday statement.

This story was updated at 5:22 p.m.