(The Center Square) – The Federal Aviation Administration will be permanently restricting nonessential helicopter operations around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in response to January’s mid-air collision over the Potomac River involving an Army helicopter and a passenger jet that killed 67 people.
The announcement follows an “urgent recommendation” from the National Transportation Safety Board earlier in the week.
The restrictions include prohibiting “nonessential helicopter operations” around Reagan National, and eliminating helicopter and “fixed-wing mixed traffic.” It will permanently close Route 4, located along the Potomac River between Hains Point and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and will be “evaluating alternative helicopter routes” as recommended by the Safety Board.
The FAA stated, “If a helicopter must fly through the airspace on an urgent mission, such as lifesaving medical, priority law enforcement, or presidential transport, the FAA will keep them specific distances away from airplanes.”
The restrictions also prohibit the “simultaneous use” of Runways 15/33 and 4/22 while helicopters are “conducting urgent missions.” Lastly, the FAA states that it will “limit the use of visual separation to certain Coast Guard, Marine, and Park Police helicopter operations outside the restricted airspace.”
Runways 15 and 33 use the same stretch of runway, with 15 used for flights arriving and departing from the north and 33 used for flights arriving and departing from the south.
It was Runway 33 that was designated to be used for the American Airlines flight en route from Wichita on the evening of Jan. 29 when it collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing 67 people.
The Safety Board reported the chopper was flying above the 200-foot permitted flight ceiling for helicopters flying near Reagan National at the time of the collision.
“The PAT25 FDR indicated that the radio altitude of the helicopter at the time of the collision was 278 feet,” according to the Safety Board’s Aviation Investigation Preliminary Report.
The ceiling is designed to keep military and law enforcement helicopters clear of commercial aircraft landing and taking off in the already tightly restricted airspace around the nation’s capital.
In addition, the report said before the collision, the chopper had turned off its Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system, a vital tracking system.
The FAA describes the system as “advanced surveillance technology that combines an aircraft’s positioning source, aircraft avionics, and ground infrastructure to create an accurate surveillance interface between aircraft” and air traffic control.
The FAA added that it will continue to examine other airports with “high volumes” of mixed-use traffic and “will have corrective action plans for any risks that are identified.”
