NTSB urgently recommends helicopter restrictions near Ronald Reagan National Airport
March 12, 2025
In the wake of January’s fatal collision between a PSA Airlines regional jet and a US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter close to Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA), the NTSB has outlined urgent restrictions it is urging the FAA to adopt; thus averting “an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chance of a midair collision”. These include prohibiting helicopter operations near DCA when runways 15 and 33 are in use, and designating an alternative helicopter route.
During the fatal accident (which claimed 67 lives), the Black Hawk had been transiting the Route 4 FAA-designated helicopter corridor when it collided with the Bombardier CRJ1700 on final approach to DCA’s runway 33.
In its ten-page urgent recommendation report, the NTSB concluded that helicopters transiting the Route 4 corridor at the maximum permitted altitude of 200ft “could only have about 75ft of vertical separation from an airplane on landing approach to runway 33,” an “insufficient distance”. This could potentially be narrowed still further “depending on the helicopter’s lateral distance from the Potomac River shoreline or if an approaching airplane was below the designated visual glidepath to runway 33”.
DCA is equipped with three runways: 1/19, 15/33, and 4/22. As per the NTSB, runway 33 is “limited to smaller aircraft, which are able to land on its relatively shorter surface”. Perhaps alarmingly, the NTSB’s review of information gathered from voluntary safety reporting programmes along with FAA data “regarding encounters between helicopters and commercial aircraft near DCA from 2011 through 2024 indicated that a vast majority of the reported events occurred on approach to landing,” continued the NTSB. Two-thirds of the events occurred at night.
It would seem the risk imposed by the insufficient separation distance has been previously documented. A review of IFR commercial operations at DCA between October 2021 and December 2024 revealed 85 recorded events that involved a lateral separation of less than 1,500ft and vertical separation less than 200ft.
Although the NTSB acknowledges its investigation is ongoing, with preliminary findings suggesting that “the existing separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft landing on runway 33 are insufficient,” immediate action must be taken. This includes prohibiting operations on helicopter Route 4 between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when runways 15 and 33 are being used for departures and arrivals, respectively.
With runway 15/33 only accounting for 5% of departures and 4% of arrivals, “the prohibition of using Route 4 would likely be infrequent,” continued the NTSB, which nevertheless acknowledged it could “still negatively impact public safety helicopter operations”. These include law enforcement activity, Coast Guard patrols, and “continuity of government operations,” all of which require “continued access to the most direct course possible”.
As such, “the NTSB [also] recommends that the FAA designate an alternative helicopter route that can be used to facilitate travel between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when that segment of Route 4 is closed,” it concluded. This would also serve to further serve safety, with mandating that controllers hold helicopters in place while aircraft are operating on 15/33 risking increasing their workload.
