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THE National Transportation Safety Board expressed deep concern on Tuesday over longstanding, ignored warnings about helicopter flight risks and airspace management near Reagan National Airport, which contributed to a midair collision last year that claimed 67 lives.
AP reported today that the NTSB said the placement of a helicopter route in the approach path of Reagan’s secondary runway created an inherently dangerous airspace, exacerbated by a lack of regular safety risk reviews.
Investigators cited over-reliance on “see and avoid” procedures by air traffic controllers as a key factor in the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk.
“We should be angry. This was 100% preventable. We’ve issued recommendations in the past that were applicable to use.
“We have talked about seeing and avoid for well over five decades. It’s shameful. I don’t want to be here years from now looking at other families that had to suffer such devastating loss,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said during the daylong hearing.
The board highlighted multiple missed opportunities to mitigate risk, including the Federal Aviation Administration’s rejection of a 2023 request to reduce air traffic at Reagan and a failure to reroute helicopters or warn pilots after a similar near-miss in 2013.
Family members of the victims attended the hearing, with some escorted out in tears as animations displayed the final moments of the aircraft involved.
“The negligence of not fixing things that needed to be fixed killed my brother and 66 other people. So I’m not very happy,” said Kristen Miller-Zahn, a bereaved sister.
The NTSB presented evidence showing the difficulty pilots faced in spotting other aircraft amid Washington’s night lights. Restricted visibility caused by aircraft windshields and the helicopter crew’s night vision goggles further limited situational awareness.
Todd Inman, an NTSB official, emphasised that systemic failures across multiple organisations, rather than the error of any individual, were chiefly responsible for the tragedy.
The jet, flying from Wichita, Kansas, and the helicopter plunged into the icy Potomac River, marking the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001, and claiming the lives of 28 members of the figure skating community.
The FAA has since reduced hourly plane arrivals at Reagan from 36 to 30, increased staffing in the control tower, and made certain post-crash safety changes permanent. Yet the NTSB warned that unresolved bureaucratic issues persist.
Homendy said she was appalled that the FAA had allowed helicopters to operate with as little as 75 feet (23 metres) of separation from landing aircraft on the secondary runway.
“Repeated recommendations over the years…went unheard, squashed — however you want to put it — stuck in red tape and bureaucracy of a very large organisation,” she said.
Former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo added, “It was just a shocking dereliction of duty by the FAA. And they have so much work to be done to fix it. And just from my background, I don’t know if the people there are up to it.”
The NTSB also found that Army and FAA personnel were not consistently sharing safety data, and air traffic controllers were overburdened.
About 90 seconds before the collision, traffic in the airspace increased to 12 aircraft, causing a controller’s situational awareness to drop.
Investigators suggested that dividing responsibilities between two controllers could have prevented the crash.
Congress, the Army, and the Trump administration face pressure to act. Homendy endorsed legislation requiring advanced locator systems on aircraft to prevent collisions, while FAA officials pledged to consider all additional NTSB recommendations.
Despite the D.C. tragedy, overall U.S. crash numbers have fallen to their lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1,405 incidents nationwide last year.
Nevertheless, the NTSB warned that systemic reforms are essential to prevent a recurrence of such catastrophic midair collisions. - January 28, 2026
