At a Washington, D.C. press briefing this afternoon, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy announced an urgent recommendation to the FAA to prohibit helicopter operations on the designated helicopter Route 4 near Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) when Runway 15/33 is in operation. The announcement included release of the NTSB Preliminary Report on the January 29 nighttime midair collision involving a U.S. Army UH60L helicopter and American Airlines/PSA Flight 5342, a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI – formerly Bombardier) CRJ700 regional jet. Flight 5342 was on a circling approach to Runway 33 when it collided with the Black Hawk, which was following Route 4. They crashed into the Potomac River, killing all 67 on board both aircraft.
The NTSB briefing, as well as the Preliminary Report, included a graphic (shown above) illustrating that a mere 75 feet of altitude clearance separated Route 4 from the normal descent profile to Runway 33. Standard procedure has been to allow helicopters to use the route, which is defined as hugging the eastern bank of the Potomac, if they could confirm visual separation with aircraft inbound to Runway 33. Multiple times in the ATC communications, the Black Hawk crew confirmed visual contact with the RJ.
Homendy noted that between 2011 and 2024, there was an average of one Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) Resolution Advisory (RA) per month involving helicopters in the DCA airspace. An RA is defined as an immediate threat requiring evasive action, as compared to a Traffic Alert (TA) where the conflict is 20 seconds away. Homendy said that in more than half of the RAs, the helicopter “may have been” above the maximum altitude of 200 feet for the segment of Route 4 that intersects with the runway centerline for Runway 15/33. She added that two-thirds of the RAs occurred at night.
The NTSB chair added that from October 2021 to December 2024, DCA logged 944,179 commercial operations. In that time, there were 15,214 “close-proximity” events (lateral separation of less than one nautical mile and/or vertical separation of less than 400 feet) involving commercial aircraft and helicopters. (In addition to military flights, Route 4 is also used by aeromedical and law enforcement helicopters). In 85 of those, separation shrank to less than 1,500 feet laterally and/or 200 feet vertically.
Homendy said, “We’ve determined that existing separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft landing on Runway 33 are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety.” She added that the NTSB was recommending today “that the FAA permanently prohibit operations on helicopter Route 4 between Haines Point and the Wilson Bridge when Runway 15 and [Runway] 33 are being used for departures and arrivals at DCA.”
She further said that the NTSB recognizes the need for helicopter traffic through the airspace, recommending that the FAA explore alternative routing for rotorcraft operations transitioning that segment of Route 4 “when that segment is closed.”
Asked if the tragedy constituted an “oversight,” Homendy’s eyes rolled for a moment, and she answered, “It was more than an oversight. We used data [from safety reporting systems] that was available to the FAA. They could have used that data to determine that we have a trend here – and a problem – and looked at that route. That didn’t occur.”
