The US Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to monitor and act on safety risks in the airspace near Washington was among a number of systemic failures safety officials blamed for last year’s midair collision.
The National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating what caused a US Army helicopter to slam into an American Airlines Group Inc. regional jet attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 29, 2025.
The accident, which was the worst US civil aviation disaster in more than two decades, resulted in the deaths of three military personnel on the Sikorsky UH-60L helicopter and 64 passengers and crew on the commercial airliner, a CRJ-700.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy and board members Todd Inman and Michael Graham said Tuesday at a meeting to determine the collision’s probable cause that there wasn’t one single factor but many errors and systemic failures that led to the tragedy.
Among those failures was the placement of a helicopter route dangerously close to a runway approach path for Reagan airport, the NTSB concluded.
The agency also cast blame on air traffic control procedures, including an overreliance on so-called “visual separation” — where pilots are granted authority to maintain a safe distance from other aircraft using their sight. The crew of the military helicopter was approved for this technique on the night of the tragedy.
The NTSB said having a single air traffic controller oversee both planes and helicopters in the airspace above Reagan airport that evening “degraded performance” by creating too heavy a workload. The US Army also failed to ensure pilots were aware of circumstances that might result in their instruments showing inaccurate altitude readings, the agency said.
The NTSB voted Tuesday on the probable cause and safety recommendations, but the final report could still take a few weeks to publish.
The FAA in a statement following the meeting said that it took immediate action after last year’s crash, including restricting helicopter traffic near the airport. The agency also said it “will carefully consider the additional recommendations the NTSB made today.”
The midair collision sparked renewed concerns about aviation safety. It also helped galvanize support for major upgrades to the nation’s aging air traffic control system.
During its probe, the NTSB uncovered thousands of prior instances where commercial aircraft and helicopters came within an unsafe distance near Reagan airport.
US Admits Liability in Chopper-Jet Crash Over Potomac River
A working group formed after a 2013 near-miss in the same location as the 2025 midair collision previously recommended that the FAA remove or relocate the helicopter route the US Army Black Hawk was using last January, NTSB investigator Brian Soper said at Tuesday’s meeting. The agency chose not to adopt the recommendation at the time, he said.
Following the 2025 accident, the FAA evaluated other places in the US considered to be at risk for midair collisions but Homendy told reporters during a break in Tuesday’s meeting that she wasn’t satisfied with that work.
Commercial airlines have raised concerns about Burbank, California, she said, with carriers telling her that “nobody at FAA is paying attention to us.”
The FAA earlier this month permanently lowered the altitude of aircraft operating around Van Nuys Airport to maintain greater separation with planes arriving at nearby Hollywood Burbank Airport, the agency said in a statement responding to Homendy’s comments.
Emergency response units assess airplane wreckage in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport following the Jan. 29, 2025 midair collision.
Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, investigators had disclosed several of their findings, including that the helicopter involved in the crash was flying too high, was dealing with faulty altitude data and wasn’t broadcasting its position using a technology known as ADS-B Out.
The NTSB said Tuesday the lack of ADS-B Out didn’t contribute to this particular accident but determined, in general, risks could arise from military aircraft flying without it on training missions or other non-sensitive operations.
The Republican chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Cruz, and the panel’s top Democrat, Maria Cantwell, have teamed up on legislation to tighten the rules that allow military aircraft to fly without having ADS-B Out turned on. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent in December but it has since stalled in the House.
Since the accident, the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General has opened an audit to assess the FAA’s management of the airspace around Reagan airport, as well as policies and procedures for overseeing ADS-B Out exemptions.
At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Homendy told families of the crash victims that “this was only the beginning,” and the next step will be working to ensure the NTSB’s safety recommendations are implemented and “no other family goes through this again.”
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