The American transport minister said he was “furious” on Tuesday that the US aviation regulator did not notice the risks of collision around an airport in Washington before the recent air tragedy that left 67 people. On January 29, there was a collision between an airline plane as a final approach to land at Ronald-Reagan airport in the US capital and a military helicopter that sailed along a renowned traffic corridor, without leaving survivors. American researchers have revealed early than in recent years, the same sector has avoided many collisions.
He attacked the American aviation regulator, which manages air traffic. “How was FAA knowing?” Donald Trump’s government minister thundered.
“An intolerable risk” according to NTSB
The investigation determined that between October 2021 and December 2024, before the accident, “there were 85 registered events” near this airport where a plane and a helicopter were “less than 457 meters horizontally and less than 60 meters vertically,” according to Jennifer Homendy, director of the American Transportation Security Agency (NTSB). When publishing its preliminary report on Tuesday, the NTSB said that the organization of linked air corridors around Washington “raises an intolerable risk of air safety.” Its director stressed that only 23 meters separate the air corridor that is approaching the landing floor for the lines of the helicopters.
The authorities have already temporarily blocked the circulation of helicopters around the airport after the accident and, according to the recommendations of the NTSB, the minister extended these restrictions on Tuesday. Ronald-Reagan’s airport is in the heart of the Washington agglomeration, above which many helicopters circulate regularly.
Research on this collision of January 29, even in Progreso, has already emphasized that there were “divergences” in the altitude to which the Sikorsky Black Falcon helicopter was stolen and the communication difficulties between this plane, the control tower and the Bombardier Crj700 plane. During his press conference, Minister Sean Duffy recalled that he was working on a deep review of the American air control system, particularly “elderly”, to “pass the children in copper to fiber, wireless and satellite.”
Source: BFM TV
