The deadly collision in midairFollowing a series of near-misses at airports over the past few years, Wednesday’s collision between an American Airlines passenger flight and a U.S. Army helicopter has reignited national worries about aviation safety.
The incident occurred at Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, which had at least two near misses the previous year. In April, a Southwest Airlines aircraft almost went over the same runway used for takeoff by a JetBlue flight. A month later, a small plane nearly collided with an American Airlines 747.
The Federal Aviation Administration recorded 1,757 runway incursions in 2024, including those near-misses. The phrase refers to situations in which an airplane, human, or other vehicle is mistakenly present on a runway. These occurrences can be minor (having no immediate safety ramifications) or serious (where a crash was barely avoided).
Since 2009, when a propeller plane struck a house close to Buffalo, New York, killing 45 passengers, four crew members, and one person on the ground, the Wednesday incident was the first deadly accident involving a commercial aircraft operating in the United States.
Three persons were on board the Black Hawk chopper, and the American Airlines aircraft was carrying 60 passengers and four staff members. Around 9 p.m. ET, the crash happened over the Potomac River as the plane was ready to land at the airport in the Washington, D.C., area.
No survivors were anticipated, according to officials.
According to Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Virginia that focuses on aviation safety research and advocacy, even the list of near-misses in recent years should have served as a wake-up call to the aviation industry, even though midair collisions like this are uncommon and only occur in the worst-case scenario.
He asserted that even one is too many.
Following a number of high-profile incidents that the National Transportation Safety Board looked into the previous year, including one in August 2023 where a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 came within 100 feet of a private Cessna Citation 560X jet landing on a San Diego runway, there were near-misses in 2024.
After both aircraft were authorized to use the same runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport earlier that year, a FedEx freight plane came dangerously close to colliding with a Southwest Airlines passenger plane. The NTSB concluded that the event was caused by a mistake made by the air traffic controller and a lack of essential safety equipment to handle the heavy fog that day around the airport.
Experts in aviation safety have frequently expressed alarm about the ongoing lack of air traffic controllers in the United States, claiming that this deficit has contributed to previous near-misses. Even though the cause of Wednesday’s sad disaster has not been identified, the FAA is coming under more criticism for personnel shortages.
According to Shahidi, a number of FAA sites have struggled in the last two years to have enough trained staff to manage the volume of traffic.
Staffing at Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night was abnormal for the time of day and volume of travel, an individual with knowledge of the matter told NBC News. According to the person, one controller typically handles helicopter traffic, but on Wednesday night, those duties were split with another controller’s. According to FAA safety regulations, such a movement is permissible. A preliminary internal report that has not been released to the public included the staffing information.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the FAA.
According to the FAA’s most recent staffing plan, as of May, the agency lacked 3,000 controllers to staff air traffic control towers and stations nationwide, according to carriers for America, a trade group that represents American carriers. The FAA reported in September that it has employed 1,811 additional air traffic controllers for the fiscal year 2024, bringing its total number of air traffic controllers and trainees to almost 14,000.
According to Shahidi, regulations mandating that air traffic controllers retire at age 56 and recruit attrition have contributed to the shortages.
He stated that current shortfalls cannot be instantly filled, even with the addition of new employees.
According to Shahidi, it will take two years for someone hired today to become completely trained if they go air traffic control school and complete all the training.
The FAA’s biggest issue, according to a 2023 study by an independent aviation review council, is the lack of air traffic controllers. The 52-page report also emphasized the urgent need to address the agency’s antiquated systems and insufficient funds in order to prevent crashes.
In an already overburdened system, the FAA is being pushed to do more with less, and the string of high-profile accidents in early 2023 highlight fundamental issues with air traffic service delivery and safety monitoring, the report stated.
Reagan Washington National Airport in particular, according to Shahidi, might be dangerous due of the complicated and busy airspace. The three runways at the airport are some of the busiest in the nation.
He claimed that there is minimal opportunity for error and that the airspace is harsh. Error margins are extremely low or nonexistent.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told NBC News that since an FAA law permitting five more flights to the airport was enacted last May, he had been secretly fearing an occurrence like this.
Nevertheless, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that the jet and helicopter were following a routine Wednesday night and that the aircraft and air traffic controllers were communicating as usual.
But, Duffy said, do I believe this could have been avoided? Of course.