By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – U.S. Senators on Thursday criticized the Federal Aviation Administration over a litany of failures before the January 2025 collision of a American Airlines regional jet and Army helicopter that killed 67 people near Reagan Washington National Airport.
Senator Maria Cantwell, top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, said at a hearing that National Transportation Safety Board findings on the crash showed the “failures of the FAA and what it needs to do to change its culture.”
The NTSB determined the collision was caused by the FAA’s decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes and its failure to review data and act on recommendations to move helicopter traffic away from the airport.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, top Democrat on the aviation subcommittee, noted that controllers had asked to lower the arrival rate at Reagan, which has the single busiest runway in the country.
“FAA management failed to act on the warnings being raised by an understaffed and overworked controller workforce,” Duckworth said. “FAA failure in the face of blaring alarm bells screaming out that as a matter of when, not if, one of the near misses at DCA would become a deadly tragedy, is unfortunately emblematic of a chronic crisis that’s plagued FAA for years under multiple administrations.”
The collision was the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades.
The FAA said it appreciates the NTSB’s expertise and input and said it will carefully consider the recommendations. The agency said after the incident it “ immediately acted to improve safety and took decisive steps to correct past failures.”
The NTSB rebuked the FAA over serious communications, culture and safety issues. The FAA said in response it would diligently consider the recommendations and said after the collision the agency immediately acted to improve safety.
The NTSB found issues with how the FAA handles traffic at Reagan, saying the agency rejected advice to add hot spots to a helicopter route chart. Homendy said the FAA also did not review the helicopter routes annually as required and had routes that were not designed to ensure proper separation.
Homendy said Helicopter Route 4 near DCA that was closed after the collision had been in place since 1986. “Not a single annual review was done, not a single one,” she said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
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