NTSB faults FAA for years of failures before Potomac midair collision

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said the Federal Aviation Administration discounted safety warnings and mismanaged the tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for years, creating systemic risks that led to last year’s midair collision near Washington between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial jet that killed 67.

N.T.S.B. staff presentations described an intersection of the helicopter route along the Potomac and the landing path of American Airlines Flight 5342 that was never designed to ensure adequate separation, leaving controllers to rely on pilots using a common practice called visual separation.

The investigators said the F.A.A. failed to train controllers on that hazard and did not follow up with warnings as the two aircraft confronted one another; “They were not adequately prepared to do the jobs they were assigned to do,” Brian Soper, who leads the N.T.S.B.’s air traffic control investigations, said.

Staff also testified that the F.A.A. ignored controller appeals to reduce traffic even as the runway became the busiest in the United States, installed but never activated a traffic management system, relaxed restrictions that allowed a single controller to manage helicopter and airplane traffic, and downgraded the tower’s facility rating in 2018, a change the board said made it harder to attract experienced personnel.