FAA bans non-essential helicopters around Reagan airport
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has permanently restricted non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan National Airport following a deadly mid-air collision with an American Airlines regional jet in January.
The change is an attempt to improve safety around the airport, which is just outside of the nation’s capital in Washington DC.
In January, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter with a crew of three collided with an American Airlines jet carrying 64 people. Both aircraft crashed near the airport. All 67 aboard were killed.
The FAA’s announcement followed the release of a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigating the crash.
The FAA also announced on Friday it will eliminate helicopter and fixed-wing mixed traffic by the airport.
It said it was evaluating other routes for helicopters, which are commonly used in Washington.
The new restrictions will allow helicopters to only fly through the airport’s airspace on urgent matters – such as for life-saving medical reasons, priority law enforcement or presidential transport – but it aims to keep them a distance away from airplanes, according to the agency.
Additionally, runways 15 and 33, near where the doomed American Airlines flight was seconds away from landing, will also be blocked for aircrafts when helicopters are in the area.
US air crash investigators earlier this week recommended restricting helicopter flights in certain areas near the airport.
The FAA is also assessing other cities with chartered helicopter routes, including Boston, New York, Detroit, Dallas, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.
“To make us more predictive, we are using machine learning and language modelling to scan incident reports and mine multiple data sources to find themes and areas of risk,” according to a statement from the agency.
