On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released the findings of its investigation into the crash between a regional airliner and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in January 2025. While all kinds of wild ideas have been thrown around as to what caused the crash, the NTSB pointed very firmly at the FAA, not the FAA pilot. It’s a pretty damning report, listing a long series of failures at the FAA that made catastrophe increasingly likely. In other words, this horrific accident, in which 67 people died, was not an accident or an inevitable chance. It was the result of bad decisions that compounded over time.
There’s a lot to unpack from the NTSB: They accuse the FAA of a wide range of wrongdoing, both in the long and medium term, and immediately before the accident. During the night, the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport assigned a single person to handle both airplane and helicopter traffic. This information was known shortly after the accident, but the NTSB determined there was no real need for this to happen, according to New York Times. Staffing levels were sufficient for airplanes and helicopters to have separate ATCs responsible for them.
What did that lone ATC do? This person allowed the Black Hawk to enter visual separation, meaning the helicopter would simply look around for other aircraft rather than taking cues from the tower. Although this is a common procedure, the NTSB found that Reagan National Airport had overused it for years, essentially delegating responsibility to ATC to the pilot. Tragically, the simulations suggested that the Black Hawk pilots could not see the plane from where they were sitting, so visual separation led to disaster. Even that was averted, however, because ATC in the tower received an automatic warning 26 seconds before the collision, according to ABC News. If ATC had relayed that warning to the pilots, it almost certainly would have prevented the accident. For whatever reason, ATC never did.
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Compounded failures
A Black Hawk helicopter hovering over a grassy field – Fox2air/Shutterstock
If that sounds like maybe this ATC wasn’t the best, there might be a reason for that. In 2018, the FAA downgraded Reagan National Airport’s facility rating. This has the effect of lowering the experience minimums for the ATCs there, lowering the tower staff pay and thus driving away top tier talent.
There’s another reason the Black Hawk pilots might have inadvertently put themselves in danger: They didn’t know how high they were. In a sentence I can’t believe is real, it turns out that the altimeters in the Black Hawks are horribly inaccurate anywhere within 200 feet. I’m only a humble writer, but this seems like a major design flaw in an airplane. Oh, and apparently this flaw isn’t mentioned in pilot training or the helicopter handbook.
Additionally, Army protocol meant the helicopter turned off its location broadcast system, called ADS-B Out. There is a push in Congress right now to mandate that this system be always on, but the fate of the ROTOR Act is uncertain. But it doesn’t even matter unless the other aircraft in question also has the system to receive that information, called ADS-B In. Very few have this installed as it is not mandatory. In this case, if both aircraft had the right technology and turned it on, it almost certainly would have prevented the crash. The NTSB has recommended mandating ADS-B 17 times in the past 20 years, but here we are.
Congested airspace
An Alaska Airlines plane comes in for a landing at Burbank International Airport – Alexander Fader/Shutterstock
In the long run, a large part of the problem is the simple fact that air travel continues to grow over time. That means more and more planes are in the air at the same time, and near an airport, they’re all funneled into a small number of runways. Reagan National Airport’s main runway is actually the busiest in America; which forces the airport to divert much of its traffic to the reserve runway. The runway of the spare runway intersects with the helicopter routes. I think you can see the problem here. This is exactly where the accident happened. If you live in LA, you’ll be pleased to know that Hollywood Burbank Airport and Van Nuys Airport are the next worst intersections for airplane and helicopter traffic, according to Politico.
It will take a long time to implement system-wide fixes for our national airspace. The NTSB has set up dozens of them, but whether or not they are adopted is not up to them. The FAA must agree, or Congress must act. In addition, there must be funding. Meanwhile, the FAA has made some adjustments to flight routes around Reagan National Airport as well as the Van Nuys airport. More will have to be done. Hopefully soon.
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