The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday determined that the midair collision that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C., one year ago was “100% preventable” and resulted from systemic failures at the Federal Aviation Administration. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the FAA ignored repeated warnings about helicopter traffic dangers for years, including a request from a regional supervisor in 2023 to reduce air traffic and documented concerns from a 2013 near miss at Reagan National Airport.
The NTSB issued more than 30 recommendations Tuesday, mostly directed at the FAA, to improve controller training, staffing, and safety protocols. The findings underscore how aviation safety depends on institutional action rather than pilots spotting each other amid busy airspace.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday called the collision that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C., “100% preventable,” blaming the Federal Aviation Administration for years of ignored warnings about helicopter traffic dangers.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the crash on January 27, 2025, resulted from systemic failures rather than individual pilot error. “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,” Homendy said during the hearing.
The collision involved an American Airlines jet from Wichita, Kansas, and an Army Black Hawk helicopter. All 67 people aboard both aircraft died, including 28 members of the figure skating community. It is the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001.
Years of Ignored Warnings
The NTSB investigation found that a helicopter route created a dangerous airspace with only 75 feet of vertical separation between aircraft landing on Reagan National Airport’s secondary runway. The board said the FAA had received repeated warnings about this hazard but failed to act. A regional supervisor requested in 2023 that air traffic be reduced, but the FAA denied the request. A similar close call occurred at Reagan in 2013, yet concerns from that incident also went unaddressed.
The NTSB found that the FAA’s reliance on pilots spotting each other in busy airspace proved insufficient. An air traffic controller felt overwhelmed when traffic reached 10 aircraft about 10 to 15 minutes before the collision, according to NTSB investigator Katherine Wilson. As the collision approached, traffic volume increased to 12 aircraft—seven airplanes and five helicopters—about 90 seconds before impact. The controller’s workload “reduced his situational awareness,” Wilson said.
Families and Accountability
Families of the victims watched the hearing intently, many wearing black shirts bearing the names of first responder units. Kristen Miller-Zahn, whose brother was killed, said the tragedy resulted from institutional negligence. “The negligence of not fixing things that needed to be fixed killed my brother and 66 other people,” she said during a break in the proceedings.
The NTSB issued more than 30 recommendations on Tuesday, with the majority directed at the FAA. The board called for improved controller training on visual separation, better staffing levels, and a comprehensive reevaluation of helicopter routes at Reagan and other airports.
Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo criticized the FAA’s track record of inaction. “It was just a shocking dereliction of duty by the FAA,” Schiavo said. “And they have so much work to be done to fix it.”
Regulatory Response
The FAA has taken some steps since the crash. The agency reduced hourly plane arrivals at Reagan from 36 to 30 and increased tower staffing to 22 certified controllers with 8 more in training. Last week, the FAA made permanent changes to ensure helicopters and planes no longer share the same airspace around the airport.
A bill endorsed by Homendy would require aircraft to carry advanced locator systems to prevent collisions—a measure the NTSB has recommended for years. Research by the board found that alerting pilots to take evasive action at 300 feet rather than the current 900 feet could eliminate 90 percent of all near misses.
Despite several high-profile crashes and near-misses in the months since the collision, NTSB statistics show the lowest number of crashes since the pandemic in 2020, with 1,405 nationwide.