Washington: The deadly midair collision between an American Airlines flight and a Blackhawk helicopter that killed 67 people in Washington DC had its warning signs years before the fateful day. At least two pilots of flights landing at the Ronald Reagan Airport witnessed near misses with choppers, a media report has revealed.
Pilots indicate that passenger planes had to take evasive action on two separate occasions to avoid colliding with a helicopter while attempting to land at the airport. In another incident, an air traffic controller reported that two military helicopters came dangerously close to each other, CNN has reported.
Just a day before Wednesday’s fatal collision, a flight approaching the airport was forced to abort its initial landing and go around after a helicopter flew near its flight path, as confirmed by air traffic control audio.
Those previous scares are sure to gain more attention after the disaster over the Potomac River which is presumed to have killed 64 people aboard the plane and three Army servicemembers on a helicopter training flight.
As a search and recovery operation continues in and around the Potomac, authorities are trying to figure out exactly what went wrong in the air of the nation’s capital as they declared no survivors from the two aircraft.
Media reports claimed and initial Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report found that staffing at the airport’s traffic control tower was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic. That corroborates the issue flagged in in one of the earlier near-miss reports from 2022, in which a controller said that there wasn’t enough staffing at the airport tower.
Recent close shaves at Washington airport
Previous near-misses between planes and helicopters at the airport were documented in NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System database, which records incidents reported anonymously by aviation personnel. These reports do not specify the airlines or flights involved, the report said.
In April 2024, a commercial passenger plane pilot reported that while descending to DCA, the crew received a traffic alert and a collision avoidance system warning indicating a helicopter approximately 300 feet below. The crew took evasive action and was able to land safely after passing above the helicopter.
A similar incident occurred in October 2022 when a passenger plane pilot reported that while descending at DCA, the collision avoidance system alerted the crew to nearby traffic and instructed them to “CLIMB NOW.” The aircraft aborted its landing, circled around, and landed successfully on the second attempt, it added.
Both incidents occurred while the planes were landing on runway 19, which was different from the runway where the American Airlines flight was set to land before the recent collision. The planes were operating under “part 121,” a regulatory certificate that generally applies to large U.S. airlines and regional carriers. In both cases, the pilots reported never actually seeing the helicopter they nearly collided with.
A third incident, reported by an air traffic controller at DCA, described an “airborne conflict” between two military helicopters near the airport in September 2022. The exact details remain unclear, but the controller noted that the helicopters got too close to each other at a time when staffing levels in the tower cabin were insufficient.
More recently, on Tuesday night, Republic Airways Flight 4514 aborted its landing on runway 19 after air traffic control warned of a nearby helicopter. According to audio from LiveATC.net, the twin-engine Embraer ERJ 175 made a climbing right turn away from the airport before landing safely later, as confirmed by FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.
