The National Transportation Safety Board uncovered more than 15,000 “near-miss events” between helicopters and jets at Reagan National airport in just three years leading up to the American Airlines jet and Army helicopter collision that killed 67 people.
Helicopter routes near Reagan National airport regularly cause an “intolerable risk to aviation safety,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters Tuesday during an update on its investigation into the January 29 collision.
In addition to the more than 15,000 “near miss” instances in which helicopters and jets at the airport came within one nautical mile and 400 vertical feet of one another between October 2021 and December 2024, there were another 85 closer calls when helicopters and planes came within 200 vertical feet of one another.
“We remain concerned about the significant potential for future midair collisions at DCA,” Homendy said.
In response to the alarming findings, the NTSB said it was recommending that the chopper route where the catastrophic collision occurred be closed down, and an alternate route be established.
“We are recommending a permanent solution today,” Homendy said, later adding that their findings had left her “angry” that nothing had been done to mitigate this risk sooner.
The NTSB did not provide answers to lingering questions about the heights the Black Hawk chopper was flying along that route when the collision occurred – explaining that investigators were still analyzing flight data and wouldn’t reveal anything but the facts.
Flight data uncovered early in the crash investigation showed a conflicting account of where each aircraft was flying when the accident occurred.
The jet’s flight recorded the American Airlines plane flying at around 313 feet when impact occurred, while the Reagan tower read the chopper as flying at 278 feet.
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The ceiling for helicopters flying over the Potomac River is 200 feet – meaning preliminary information indicated they were well above the safety limit in the crowded skyway near Reagan.
NTSB officials also said it’s possible the Black Hawk crew had “bad data,” and that their instruments were not showing them their true altitude.
And just seconds before the wreck, the chopper crew may have missed a critical control tower communication directing them to “pass behind” the jet because they keyed their radio to respond at the exact moment that phrase was spoken.
The fiery wreck was the deadliest aviation disaster on US soil since November 12, 2001, when another American Airlines plane dropped from the sky into a Queens neighborhood shortly after departing JFK International airport in NYC and killed all 260 people onboard and five people on the ground.
That accident was likely caused by pilot error, the NTSB determined.
January’s wreck was carrying numerous kids who had just finished competing in the 2025 US Figure Skating Championship in Wichita, Kansas, along with their parents and coaches who had come along to support them.
At least 14 of them were members of the US Figure Skating team, and the wreck gutted the tight-knit East Coast skating community.