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FAA permanently shuts helicopter route where Black Hawk struck airliner

A crane is seen from Virginia as it removes airplane wreckage from the Potomac River, where American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on Feb. 3 in Alexandria, Virginia. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Ian Duncan and Lori Aratani Washington Post

Aviation authorities Friday permanently closed part of a helicopter route near Reagan National Airport where an Army Black Hawk collided with an airliner in January, killing 67 people, acting on urgent recommendations issued by crash investigators this week.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it would also permanently extend restrictions on helicopter traffic in an area around the busy airport that have been in place since shortly after the crash. At the same time, the agency said it would ease an additional measure that had been causing severe disruptions when President Donald Trump departed the White House on Marine One.

“The FAA will continue to closely support the NTSB-led investigation and take action as necessary to ensure public safety,” the agency said in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday issued recommendations to improve safety on the helicopter routes, releasing preliminary findings of its investigation into the Jan. 29 crash and a review of a history of close calls between jets and helicopters in the airspace near National. The findings were drawn in large part from information the NTSB’s chair said the FAA could have accessed before the crash, prompting renewed criticism of the agency.

The FAA said Friday that it was reviewing safety in eight other major cities that have helicopter routes, as well as carrying out an analysis of the Gulf Coast, where helicopters serve oil drilling operations. The agency said it would use AI tools to help it identify potential trouble spots.

At the time of the January crash, the Army helicopter was using a helicopter route that follows the east bank of the Potomac River and passes within 15 feet a landing route used by airliners heading to one of the runways at National, according to a review by the Washington Post. There is little clearance between the two paths, investigators confirmed, and the helicopter was flying above an altitude limit of 200 feet. The NTSB’s preliminary review added to earlier reporting by the Post showing that the risks in the airspace were better documented than had been publicly known. Investigators said that for years before the crash, airliners’ collision alert systems regularly warned them about helicopters near National, and they identified dozens of close calls over a three-year span.

After the crash, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced restrictions of helicopter traffic in an area around National.

On Friday, the FAA said it was making those restrictions permanent. They include exceptions for urgent flights, including medical, law enforcement and presidential transportation operations. When a helicopter is transiting the area near the airport, the FAA said two runways at National will be closed.

As part of its safety efforts, the FAA had also prohibited controllers from using a technique that relies on instructing helicopters to watch out for and avoid planes, called “visual separation.” The Black Hawk had confirmed to controllers it would use visual separation to avoid the jet in the minutes before the crash.

But prohibiting visual separation in recent weeks had the effect of bringing traffic in and out of National to a standstill when the president was leaving the White House. The FAA said Friday it would again allow use of visual separation for Marine, Coast Guard and Park Police helicopters, which could ease the disruptions.