Aviation system under fire: what the DC crash hearings revealed

The three-day National Transportation Safety Board hearing into January's devastating midair collision near Washington D.C. concluded on Friday with a portrait of an aviation system pushed to its breaking point, and mounting criticism that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) failed to act on clear warning signs.

The January 29 crash between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter killed all 67 people on board both aircraft, marking the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in two decades. While the NTSB won't determine the probable cause until its final report expected next year, the marathon hearing painted a damning picture of systemic failures across multiple agencies.

According to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, who cited FAA surveillance data, there were over 15,000 close proximity events between helicopters and commercial aircraft at Reagan National Airport between October 2021 and December 2024, with some reports warning the flight space was "an accident waiting to happen."

Former NTSB Chair Jim Hall, who led the board for nearly eight years, wasn't surprised by the findings. "Nothing in this surprises me," he said of what the hearing revealed. "It only demonstrates that the past is prologue."

Homendy didn't mince words when confronting FAA officials during the hearing. "Are you kidding me? Sixty-seven people are dead! How do you explain that? Our bureaucratic process?" she demanded. "Fix it. Do better."

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy at the hearing on Friday

Homendy criticised the FAA for failing to act despite clear warnings. "Every sign was there that there was a safety risk, and the tower was telling you. You transferred people out instead of taking ownership over the fact that everybody was saying there's a problem."

The testimony and thousands of pages of documents released by the NTSB showed a convergence of problems: a highly complex and congested airspace, prior concerns about risky helicopter routes that went unaddressed, critical mistakes on the night of the collision,

an overworked air traffic control tower struggling with chronic staffing shortages.

The hearings revealed that the Black Hawk helicopter may have been relying on misleading instrument readings when it was operating too high over the Potomac River in the lead-up to the midair collision. The NTSB found that throughout the flight, the Black Hawk crew called out elevations that were about 100 feet lower than the altitude recorded by their radio altimeter, a critical discrepancy in an area where helicopters were required to follow strict height limits.

Investigators said the helicopter crew had no idea they were about to crash, but the pilots flying the airliner used expletives two seconds before the crash and pulled the plane up. The final moments were captured in harrowing detail through cockpit voice recorder transcripts released during the investigation.

Air traffic control also came under intense scrutiny. The tower failed to warn the passenger plane of the Black Hawk's flight path before the collision, and controllers were routinely relying on pilots to use "visual separation", relying on their eyesight, rather than more stringent air traffic control protocols.

The hearing exposed chronic understaffing at Reagan National's air traffic control tower that has persisted even after the crash. According to NTSB investigator Brian Soper, while there are 26 controllers assigned to the tower, staffing levels remain inadequate.

Air traffic controllers described being required to "make it work" while dealing with a constant stream of aircraft in one of the nation's most congested airspaces. The pressure to keep flights moving led to increased reliance on visual separation procedures that may have contributed to the collision.

The Army didn't escape criticism. NTSB board members slammed the Army for not committing to accepting the agency's safety recommendations, with Army officials saying they would only take recommendations from their independent airworthiness organisation.

Family members at the hearing on Friday

A Senator accused the FAA and US Army of a "string of systemic failures" after hearing evidence from the NTSB hearing. The military's helicopter operations in the congested D.C. area came under particular scrutiny, with questions about whether training flights should continue in such a busy airspace.

Aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, a longtime official at both the FAA and NTSB, called the hearing "the FAA's day of reckoning." He predicted the testimony could finally pressure the agency to curtail flights at Reagan National and take concrete action to boost air traffic controller staffing.

The political response was swift. Senator Jerry Moran, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee's aviation panel, is considering a hearing to examine why the FAA didn't act on prior safety recommendations related to Reagan National. Senator Tammy Duckworth, the top Democrat on Moran's subcommittee, also supports additional congressional hearings.

While Washington enters its August break, lawmakers are expected to intensify their scrutiny when Congress returns in September. The hearing's revelations of systemic failures across multiple agencies virtually guarantee continued congressional oversight.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has already taken some action, permanently banning certain helicopter routes following the crash, but critics argue much more needs to be done.

The final NTSB report, expected sometime next year, will officially determine the probable cause of the crash. But the hearing made clear that this tragedy resulted from a cascade of failures that many saw coming, and that might have been prevented if agencies had acted on years of warnings about the dangerous conditions in Washington D.C.'s crowded skies.

For the families of the 67 victims who attended the hearings, the technical details and bureaucratic finger-pointing offer little comfort. But the public airing of these systemic failures may finally force the changes needed to prevent another such tragedy in one of America's most challenging aviation environments.