NTSB Report Reveals Fatal Midair Collision Risks Near DCA – Why Didn’t the FAA Act?

On March 11, 2025, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its preliminary investigation into the midair collision of a U.S. Army UH-60L Blackhawk helicopter, callsign PAT25, and a MHI (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) RJ Aviation (formerly Bombardier) CL-600-2C10 (CRJ700), N709PS, operated by PSA Airlines as United Airlines Flight 5342. All passengers and crew of Flight 5342—which included two pilots, two flight attendants, and sixty passengers—and all three crew members aboard the helicopter were fatally injured in the midair collision.

The NTSB also released Aviation Investigation Report AIR-25-01, which urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to take immediate action concerning the potential for midair collisions between helicopters on helicopter Route 4 and aircraft landing or departing on runway 33 or runway 15 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

The NTSB found that existing vertical 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 by increasing the chances of a midair collision.”

Astonishingly, the NTSB found that with the routing procedures in place at the time of the midair collision, even with all aircraft at correct altitudes, the vertical separation between helicopter traffic on Route 4 and aircraft landing on runway 33 could be as close as 75 feet. The NTSB recommended that the FAA prohibit operations on helicopter Route 4 between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge when runways 33 and 15 are being used for departures and arrivals at DCA, and that the FAA designate an alternate route for helicopter traffic when that segment of Route 4 is closed.

Even more disconcerting, a review of the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) system, along with FAA data gathered regarding encounters between helicopters and commercial aircraft near DCA between 2011 and 2024, found there was at least one traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) resolution advisory triggered per month due to DCA aircraft flying in close proximity to a helicopter. The NTSB believed that in half of the instances, the helicopter was above the helicopter route altitude restriction.

Moreover, a review of commercial operations at DCA between October 2021 and December 2024 found there were 15,214 instances where the lateral separation between commercial aircraft and helicopters was less than 1 mile and vertical separation was less than 400 feet. The NTSB also found 85 instances where lateral separation was less than 1,500 feet and vertical separation less than 200 feet. The FAA considers an encounter as a “near miss” whenever vertical separation between aircraft is less than 500 feet.

One must question why the FAA did not act on this data, especially given that the ASIAS system was specifically created by NASA to be used a tool to help identify hazards and safety issues in the National Airspace System. According to the ASIAS website, “Pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, maintenance technicians, ground personnel, and others involved in aviation operations can submit reports to the ASRS when they are involved in, or observe, an incident or situation in which they believe aviation safety was compromised.”

It is alarming that the aviation community was doing its part to further aviation safety by diligently reporting in ASIAS numerous “near misses” in the DCA airspace for years, but the FAA took no action in the decade that this information was available.

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