Overview
- The Senate aviation subcommittee will question FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford later this month on how the agency is carrying out NTSB safety recommendations tied to the Reagan National midair crash.
- Investigators said longstanding FAA oversight failures let helicopters operate near airliners with no reliable separation, causing the January 2025 jet–Black Hawk collision that killed 67 in the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades.
- The NTSB tallied 15,200 airplane–helicopter separation incidents near Reagan since 2021, including 85 close calls that signaled a broader safety gap rather than a one-off error.
- The board found the FAA rejected adding hot spots to helicopter charts, skipped required annual route reviews, and kept routes that did not ensure proper spacing between aircraft.
- The FAA says it has tightened operations at Reagan by restricting some activity, revising helicopter routes, and reviewing controller workload and separation standards as Congress advances competing air-safety bills including proposals like the ROTOR Act.