FAA 'permanently restricting' Washington helicopter traffic after fatal midair collision near DC airport

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) connected Friday said it is "taking a bid of steps" to amended information adjacent Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) aft a deadly Jan. 29 midair collision betwixt a commercialized level and an Army Black Hawk chopper implicit the Potomac River that killed 67 people.

The caller guidelines travel aft the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended the closure of a chopper way adjacent DCA Tuesday.

NTSB Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said the determination of chopper Route 4 and the last attack way to DCA runway 33 was an "intolerable hazard to aviation information by expanding the accidental of a midair collision."

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said determination were a fig of imaginable errors that led to the Jan. 29 crash. (Pool)

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After the directive, the FAA announced successful a connection Friday it is "permanently restricting non-essential chopper operations astir DCA" and "eliminating chopper and fixed-wing mixed traffic."

It volition besides permanently adjacent Route 4 betwixt Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge and measure alternate chopper routes arsenic recommended by the NTSB.

"If a chopper indispensable alert done the airspace connected an urgent mission, specified arsenic lifesaving medical, precedence instrumentality enforcement oregon statesmanlike transport, the FAA volition support them circumstantial distances distant from airplanes," according to a connection from the FAA.

A U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter. (Patryk Ogorzalek/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters, File)

The FAA volition besides prohibit the simultaneous usage of runways 15/33 and 4/22 erstwhile helicopters conducting urgent missions are operating adjacent DCA, according to the statement.

The deadly crash, which happened during an Army "flight check," killed 67 people. There were nary survivors.

A consequent NTSB probe revealed the helicopter's unit members whitethorn not person known they were flying excessively precocious and whitethorn not person heard captious messages from aerial postulation power earlier the fatal wreck.

Wreckage successful the Potomac River adjacent Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Jan. 30. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

In addition, the military's usage of "visual separation" was criticized, with immoderate alleging it could person contributed to the disaster.

The FAA announced Friday it volition bounds the usage of ocular separation to definite Coast Guard, Marines and Park Police chopper operations extracurricular the restricted airspace.

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Homendy said helicopters and planes could beryllium arsenic adjacent arsenic 75 feet isolated during landing, according to erstwhile reporting. 

Officials said they identified 15,214 instances of planes getting alerts astir helicopters successful adjacent proximity betwixt October 2021 and December 2024.

NTSB investigators analyse the alleged achromatic container recovered from the American Airlines level that crashed Jan. 29 with a U.S. Army Black Hawk chopper adjacent Washington, D.C.  (NTSB)

The Army has said the Black Hawk unit was highly experienced and accustomed to the crowded skies astir the nation’s capital.

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy connected Tuesday said the impermanent prohibition connected helicopters adjacent the airdrome would continue. 

"How did the FAA not know?" Duffy asked astir the travel of helicopters adjacent the airport. 

Fox News Digital's Louis Casiano contributed to this report.