US senators blast FAA for failing to act earlier on helicopters near airplanes

Published: 2025-03-27 12:44:25 ET AAL

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. senators on Thursday criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to act for years to address helicopters in "dangerous proximity" to commercial airplanes near Reagan Washington National Airport.

"Why did the FAA not act on 15,000 reports of dangerous proximity? How were these helicopter routes allowed to remain when alarm bells were literally going off in the towers?" asked Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell at a Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee hearing on the fatal January 29 collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines regional passenger jet that killed 67 people near Reagan Washington National Airport.

Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau acknowledged the data was troubling. "Clearly something was missed," Rocheleau said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said earlier this month that since 2021, there were more than 15,200 occurrences between commercial airplanes and helicopters with lateral separation distance of less than 1 nautical mile and vertical separation of less than 400 feet, and 85 close-call incidents during that period.

The NTSB issued urgent recommendations to ask the FAA to permanently restrict helicopter traffic near Reagan National because the FAA previously allowed them to fly near each other.

"Why did the FAA allow a helicopter route to come within 75 feet of a runway approach?" asked Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth.

The FAA

this month made the restrictions permanent

.

Senators also raised concerns about why the U.S. Army routinely failed to use a key safety system known as ADS-B on helicopter flights around the Washington airport.

Senate aviation subcommittee chair Jerry Moran, a Republican, asked why action had not been taken earlier. "What did not happen at the FAA that would have highlighted this problem earlier?" Moran asked. "Congress must make sure that this never occurs again." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Chris Reese)