The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is recommending that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) permanently ban helicopter operations near Ronald Reagan National Airport with certain runways are in us.
Calling the helicopter operations “an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chance of a midair collision,” the NTSB asked the FAA to prohibit those operations near runways 15 and 33 when they are in use, and to designate an alternative helicopter route.
The recommendation comes after a helicopter and airplane crashed over the Potomac this winter. On Jan. 29, a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in the FAA-designated helicopter corridor collided with a PSA Airlines regional jet approaching DCA’s Runway 33. The collision killed 67 passengers and the crews on both aircraft.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a press conference the FAA was accepting the NTSB’s recommendations restricting non-essential helicopter operations and to eliminate mixed helicopter and fixed wing traffic and would take immediate action.
The NTSB’s recommendation report said helicopters transiting the Route 4 helicopter corridor at the maximum authorized altitude of 200 feet could have only about 75 feet of vertical separation from an airplane on landing approach to Runway 33. The lack of separation was insufficient, the agency said. Vertical separation could be potentially less than 75 feet if the helicopter’s lateral distance from the Potomac River shoreline or if an approaching airplane was below the designated visual glidepath to Runway 33.