The NTSB wants to severely restrict helicopter traffic near Ronald Reagan National Airport, authorities said Tuesday, following a catastrophic collision in the air that killed 67 people.
The tragedy of January 29 near the capital of the Nation marked the most fatal American air clash in more than 20 years, and the president of NTSB, Jennifer Homendy, asked the FAA to promulgate immediate restrictions.
The existing allowed distances between airplanes and helicopters “are insufficient and represent an intolerable risk for aviation security by increasing the possibilities of a collision in the air in DCA,” Homandy told journalists.
“Allow me to repeat: that represent an intolerable risk for aviation security. Therefore, we recommend today that FAA permanently prohibits helicopter operations … Between Hains Point and the Wilson bridge,” he added.
American Airlines Flight 5342, with 60 passengers and four crew on board, was minutes to complete his trip from Wichita, Kansas, to DCA.
It was then that he collided with a Black Hawk UH-60, which was in a training exercise from Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The heavens were clear that on Wednesday night only 3 miles south of the White House.
All on the regional plane and the helicopter were killed.
The victims included six people affiliated with the Boston skating club, which had been in Wichita for the 2025 figurative skating championship of the previous weekend.
That party had stayed in Wichita for a development camp aimed at promising American competitors.
The skaters of teenage figures Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, their mothers Jin Han and Christine Lane, and the trainers Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were also killed in the accident.
The DCA disaster was among several high -profile aviation incidents in North America.
Seven people were killed on February 1 when an air ambulance crashed into the northeast of Philadelphia.
Bering Air Flight 445 crashed on his way to Nome, Alaska, on February 6, killing at 10 on board.
Eighteen people were injured, but none killed, on February 17 when Delta Air Lines flies 4819, from Minneapolis, turned the track on the track at the Toronto Pearson International Airport (Yyz).
A private jet and the southwest flight 2504 almost crashed at the Midway International Airport on February 25.
Despite this recent series of terrifying airlines incidents, transport officials insist that domestic flight is as safe as fatal accidents as a rarity.
This is a development story. Consult the updates again.
