Senators questioned the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday about why the agency didn’t act sooner to improve safety in the crowded skies around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after a passenger jet and a military helicopter collided mid-air in January and killed 67 people during the airliner’s final approach.
Lawmakers in both parties urged federal aviation officials to sort out the thousands of close calls involving airplanes and helicopters near one of the nation’s busiest runways, a high level of near misses that was first revealed in the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the crash released this month.
Sen. Jerry Moran, the Kansas Republican who chairs the subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation, pressed Federal Aviation Administration acting head Chris Rocheleau about the agency’s seemingly slow response to years’ worth of troubling data.
“Why wasn’t some action taken to encourage and, in fact, increase the safety — particularly at an airport like DCA and maybe others — [regarding] the proximity between helicopter and commercial air service traffic?”
Mr. Rocheleau said the agency receives millions of pieces of flight data on air traffic near the Reagan National, but acknowledged, “Clearly, something was missed.”
The crash took place on Jan. 29 between an American Airlines passenger jet, carrying 64 people from Wichita, Kansas, and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that had a three-person crew. No one survived the collision that sent both aircraft into the icy Potomac River.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, whose agency is investigating the crash, said the FAA does have the information on air traffic flight data around DCA but suggested it may not be analyzing it to spot dangerous trends. The FAA administrator said they are looking into using AI to crunch the numbers more efficiently.
The safety board’s preliminary report found that, between October 2021 and December 2024, Reagan National witnessed more than 15,000 incidents in which a commercial airliner and a helicopter had less than 400 feet of vertical separation.
In 85 of those incidents, there were less than 200 feet of vertical separation.
Officials have not said what caused the deadliest aviation accident in a generation, but they confirmed the helicopter was slightly off course and flying too high moments before the collision.
The NTSB’s report said the crash occurred at about 300 feet of altitude; helicopters are not allowed to fly above 200 feet to avoid interfering with air traffic at Reagan National.
The FAA has since shut down the frequent helicopter traffic that crisscrossed the river.
Family members of the crash victims attended the hearing, including Dailey Crafton, brother of 40-year-old Casey Crafton, who died aboard the American Airlines flight.
“I was surprised by the lapses in safety protocols that led up to the crash,” Mr. Crafton told reporters after the hearing. The Crafton family is part of a $250 million lawsuit being brought against the federal government over the deadly collision.
Also in attendance was Tim Lilley, the father of 28-year-old American Airlines co-pilot Sam Lilley.
Mr. Lilley, a former Black Hawk pilot himself, said he flew the same route as the doomed helicopter hundreds of times. The crews he was a part of never tried to fly their aircraft past Reagan National while a passenger jet was coming in to land at the airport’s shorter Runway 33.
He did commend the Trump administration and federal lawmakers for moving with expediency on the issue. But Mr. Lilley said he is still grieving the tragedy.
“It’s been the hardest two months of my life,” he said after the hearing. “The hardest day of my life was the 29th. The second-hardest day was the day after that, when the NTSB told us about our loved ones spread across the ice.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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