The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued urgent safety recommendations to prevent helicopters from flying along the Potomac River in Washington DC when a certain runway is being used at Reagan National Airport (DCA).
The recommendations come just over a month after a US military Black Hawk helicopter flying on a training mission along the Potomac collided with an American Airlines regional jet as it was coming into the land at the airport.
Tragically, all 64 passengers and crew on the American Airlines, along with three crew members on the Blackhawk helicopter, died when the wreckage of both aircraft fell from the sky and into the river.
In making its recommendation, the NTSB said that allowing helicopters to fly along certain designated routes along the Potomac when a specific runway at DCA is in use presented an “intolerable risk to aviation safety.”
Reagan National has three intersecting runways which are known as runway 1/19, runway 15/33, and runway 4/22.
During north operations, aircraft usually come into land on runway one, but smaller aircraft are sometimes directed to land on runway 33. American Airlines flight AA5342 had been directed to land on runway 33 when the Blackhawk helicopter collided with it.
Military and police helicopters are permitted to fly a maximum altitude of 200 feet when using Route 4 along the Potomac and have a maximum vertical separation of just 75 feet from civilian aircraft coming into land at DCA when Runway 33 is in use.
The NTSB has asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to permanently ban helicopters from using Route 4 when Runway 15/33 is in use and to designate a new route during periods when Route 4 is closed.
In the aftermath of the fatal accident, the FAA temporarily banned most helicopter movements near DCA pending the NTSB’s report into the incident.
“This NTSB action is highly unusual,” commented aviation attorney and former Inspector General of the U.S. DOT, Mary Schiavo. “The release of an emergency recommendation requesting the FAA take immediate action before the completion of the NTSB investigation is rare.”
“They cited 15,214 helicopter/commercial airplane close calls between 2021 and 2024, labeled the helicopter route an intolerable risk to aviation, and demanded an immediate permanent closure,” the Motley Rice attorney continued.
“In half of the close calls, the helicopter was above its altitude restriction; two-thirds of these events were at night.”
Following the publication of the NTSB’s recommendations, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy thanked the board’s chair, Jennifer Homendy, and confirmed that the FAA would continue to restrict the use of Route 4.
Presidential and Vice Presidential helicopter movements are, however, exempted from the restrictions, and DCA will be forced to stop air traffic during these times.
Duffy slammed the FAA for not recognizing the risks at Reagan National Airport before the fatal accident occurred and suggested that the agency had been focused on issues other than safety.
The FAA is now utilizing artificial intelligence to identify whether there are any other similar safety risks at airports across the United States, Duffy said during a press conference on Tuesday.
