In a development that has reignited scrutiny of U.S. airspace management, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rejected internal requests from air traffic controllers to reduce arrival rates at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) months before a devastating mid-air collision occurred near the airport on January 29, 2025, Washington Times reported.
Air traffic controllers’ (ATC) safety concerns stemmed from the complexity of mixed fixed-wing and rotorcraft operations in tightly constrained airspace, where helicopters routinely intersect aircraft approach corridors with minimal vertical separation. Yet months before the catastrophe, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declined controller proposals to dial back the number of hourly arrivals — a decision now central to ongoing investigations and hearings.
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Rejection of Flight-Arrival Reduction at DCA and Implications
The collision that has brought FAA’s denial to take air traffic controller’s request of limiting the number of aircraft movements at Washington National Airport involved an American Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 (operated by PSA Airlines for American Eagle Flight 5342) and a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River, killing 67 people — 64 aboard the airliner and all three on the helicopter.
It was the deadliest U.S. commercial aviation disaster in more than two decades, has catalyzed calls for fundamental reforms in airport traffic limits, airspace design, and regulatory oversight.
An internal FAA memo made public by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed that those who work at Potomac Consolidated Terminal Radar Approach Control (PCT TRACON) in Warrenton formally requested a reduction in flight arrivals per hour to address persistent airspace saturation issues, the Washington Times said:
“The PCT TRACON team cited a number of safety factors in their request, including an inability to meter arriving aircraft to maintain the required four miles of spacing between them, which resulted in difficulty managing traffic flow into Reagan. Their request sought to cut arrivals at Reagan’s main runway from 36 to 32 incoming flights per hour.”
The news about FAA’s decision to decline the request comes only a few days before the mark of one year after the crash
2025 Potomac River Mid-Air Collision and Implications for Air Traffic Control
On January 29, 2025, at approximately 8:47 p.m. local time, a Bombardier CRJ700 regional aircraft operating as Flight 5342 collided with a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter designated PAT25 over the Potomac River, just short of runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).
Initial investigations showed the helicopter was flying above its permitted altitude and lacked radar-friendly surveillance (ADS-B) transmissions at the time of impact, reported ABC:
“a video animation… showed how the helicopter flew above the 200 feet (61 metres) altitude limit on the helicopter route along the Potomac River before colliding with the plane. It took just seconds for disaster to strike in the air above the US capital, where two aircraft collided and killed 67 people on Wednesday. Investigators said the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 to 100 feet higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying.”
After the crash, a review of voluntary safety reporting programs and FAA data from 2011 to 2024 indicated the following:
- In more than half of Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)-related encounters, the helicopter may have been operating above its prescribed route altitude restriction.
- Approximately two-thirds of reported encounters occurred during night operations, indicating a strong temporal concentration of risk.
- Between October 2021 and December 2024, DCA recorded 944,179 commercial IFR arrivals and departures.
- During this period, 15,214 encounters involved a lateral separation of less than 1 nautical mile and vertical separation of less than 400 feet between commercial aircraft and helicopters.
- Within this group, 85 events met higher-severity criteria, involving lateral separation of less than 1,500 feet and vertical separation of less than 200 feet.
Runway Utilization Patterns at DCA (2018 – 2024) revealed that Runway 1 accounted for approximately 57% of arrivals, Runway 19 accounted for approximately 38% of arrivals.
Runway 33 accounted for approximately 4% of arrivals, Runway 15 accounted for less than 1% of arrivals, but approximately 5% of departures, while the safety action included the FAA issuing a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM):
“prohibiting helicopter traffic from operating over the Potomac River near DCA from the surface up to and including 17,999 ft msl with exceptions for lifesaving medical, active law enforcement, air defense, or presidential transport missions. If such missions are required, civilian aircraft will not be allowed in the area.”
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Implications of the FAA’s Rejection of Flight-Arrival Reduction at DCA
Washington Post’s report also claimed that arrivals at Reagan National were reduced to 28 per hour after the crash and have since risen to about 30, the cap is not permanent, and pre-crash operations at times exceeded nominal limits, reaching as many as 50 arrivals per hour during peak periods, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
It is extraordinary that in the final 90 seconds before the collision, the air traffic controller responsible for Reagan National’s airspace was managing 12 aircraft, Washington Times also said that ATCs at Reagan to resort to “continual mitigation” as a way to deal with the high volume of aircraft:
“Among the frequently used strategies to deal with congestion was offloading arrivals to runway 33, which is where the American Airlines flight 5342 was redirected to land moments before the collision. The last-minute change forced the pilots to break off from their final approach course and circle to runway 33. The shorter, less-frequently used runway required a more complex approach to the airport, and it put the American Airlines passenger jet directly over the corridor the Black Hawk helicopter was traveling.”