NTSB Issues “Urgent Safety Recommendations” For DCA Airspace
What Happened?
On the evening January 29, 2025, a CRJ-700 operated by PSA on behalf of American Eagle was approaching Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)'s Runway 33, after a 2 hour flight from Wichita, Kansas. Just a half a mile from the runway threshold, it collided with a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk above the Potomac River. Tragically, all onboard both aircraft (64 occupants of the CRJ and 3 onboard the helicopter) were killed, making it the deadliest crash in America since 2009.
Reagan’s Airspace
DCA has an extremely complicated airspace for a variety of reasons. There has been a permanent air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the Washington, D.C. area since 2003, to protect the sensitive government buildings in the area, including the White House, the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the National Mall, the US Naval Observatory, and the Pentagon. All of these sites have aircraft prohibitions below 18,000 feet, and thus aircraft operating in and out of DCA, which is just across the Potomac River from the action in DC, need to be mindful of these restrictions.
Pilots approaching from the north are generally required to follow the path of the Potomac River and turn just before landing to align with the runway. Flights taking off to the north must follow a similar path above the Potomac.
NTSB Investigation Update & Recommendations
Today, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) provided an update to the press on the progress of their investigation, as well as their safety recommendations for Reagan Airport. It was hosted by NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy and Brice Banning, the investigator-in-charge. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is also set to speak later in the day, after the briefing has wrapped up. The NTSB Chair stressed that the investigation is still in its early stages, a so-called “fact finding” phase.
Per analysis by CNN, the initial report contains information on:
- Crew experience in terms of flight hours.
- The history of the flights, which was also discussed at a past press conference.
- Information on the recorders: This area still requires “a lot of work,” she said, explaining that the Black Hawks combined cockpit voice and flight data recorder does not record date information, time information or helicopter position information. There’s inconsistency in the data, which led NTSB to declare the pressure altitude parameter on the Black Hawk as invalid. “We’re now in the process of determining whether that may have affected other helicopter systems that used pressure altitude as a data source, such as the altimeters,” she added.
- Operators
- The aircraft involved
- Air traffic control at the time of the crash
- Helicopter routes
- The airport emergency response
- Recovery operations
- Wreckage exams
In the press briefing, Chair Homendy issued an urgent recommendation that helicopters should be barred from a four-mile stretch over the Potomac River when flights are landing on Reagan National Airport’s Runway 33. “Urgent recommendations require immediate action to prevent similar accidents or incidents when we issue them,” Homendy told reporters. “We believe a critical safety issue must be addressed without delay.”
The recommendation reads, “Prohibit operations on helicopter Route 4 between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when runways 15 and 33 are being used for departures and arrivals, respectively, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport,” and also calls for the designation of “an alternative helicopter route that can be used to facilitate travel between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when that segment of Route 4 is closed.”
“We remain concerned about the significant potential for a future mid-air collision at DCA, which is why we are recommending a permanent solution today,” Homendy said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that investigators uncovered 15,214 occurrences of “near-miss events” between October 2021 and December 2024, where aircraft were within one nautical mile of colliding and vertical separation of less than 400 feet. There were also 85 cases where two aircraft were laterally separated by less than 1,500 feet and a vertical separation of less than 200 feet, according to reporting by CNN.
The NTSB Chair did say that “aviation is incredibly safe” noting that she had just flown out of DCA with her daughter. “However, there are safety issues and areas where we need to improve to make sure that we are at zero. And so, that is the role of the NTSB in investigating. This is why we issue urgent safety recommendations,” she added.
