The Coast Guard investigates aircraft wreckage on the Potomac River on Jan. 30 in Washington, DC.Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles / U.S. Coast Guard / Getty Images
The NTSB wants to severely restrict helicopter traffic near Ronald Reagan National Airport, officials said Tuesday, in the wake of a catastrophic midair collision that killed 67 people.
The Jan. 29 tragedy near the nation's capital marked the deadliest such U.S. air crash in more than 20 years, and NTSB Chairperson Jennifer Homendy called on the FAA to enact immediate restrictions.
The NTSB asked that FAA to prohibit helicopters from flying near the airport when Runway 15/33 is in use at DCA.
The existing allowable distances between planes and helicopters "are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chances of a midair collision at DCA," Homendy told reporters.
"Let me repeat: That they pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety. We're therefore recommending today that the FAA permanently prohibit operations on helicopters ... between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge," she added.
Between October 2021 and December 2024, there were 944,179 flights in and out of DCA with 15,214 "close proximity events between commercial airplanes and helicopters in which there was a lateral separation distance of less than one nautical mile and vertical separation of less than 400 feet," Homendy said.
There were 85 times when helicopters and planes were less than 1,500 feet apart laterally with "vertical separation of less than 200 feet," Homendy added.
American Airlines Flight 5342, carrying 60 passengers and four crew on board, was minutes away from completing its journey from Wichita, Kansas, to DCA.
That's when it collided with a UH-60 Black Hawk, which was on a training exercise out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The skies were clear that Wednesday night just 3 miles south of the White House.
Everyone on both the regional jet and helicopter were killed.
The victims included six people affiliated with the Skating Club of Boston, who had been in Wichita for the previous weekend's 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
That party had stayed behind in Wichita for a development camp targeting up-and-coming U.S. competitors.
Teenage figure skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, their mothers Jin Han and Christine Lane, and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were also killed in the crash.
The DCA disaster was among several high-profile aviation incidents in North America.
A private jet and Southwest Flight 2504 nearly collided at Midway International Airport on Feb. 25.
Despite this recent spate of scary airline incidents, transportation officials insist that domestic flying is as safe as it's ever been with fatal crashes a rarity.