Inaction by government agencies and other systemic failures contributed to a 2025 midair collision that was the worst U.S. civil aviation disaster in more than two decades, the head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said.

The NTSB has been investigating what caused a U.S. Army helicopter to slam into an American Airlines regional jet attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the closest to the nation’s capital, on January 29, 2025. 

The accident resulted in the deaths of three military personnel on the Sikorsky UH-60L helicopter and 64 passengers and crew on the commercial airliner, a CRJ-700. 

“You will hear how deep underlying systemic failures, system flaws aligned to create the conditions that led to this devastating tragedy,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the start of a meeting on January 27 to determine the probable cause of the midair collision. 

The crash sparked renewed concerns about aviation safety and led to a crackdown on helicopter flights near the airport. It also helped galvanize support for major upgrades to the nation’s aging air traffic control system. 

In her opening statement, Homendy cited many factors that led to last year’s crash, including the design of the airspace around Reagan airport and the limitations of “see and avoid,” a collision avoidance method that relies on pilots to scan for and maneuver around nearby aircraft. 

She also pointed to what she called the failure of “entire organizations to evaluate and act on readily available data, heed repeated recommendations and foster robust safety cultures.” 

NTSB board members Todd Inman and Michael Graham echoed Homendy’s sentiment. The accident was the result of a “multitude of errors,” Graham said. 

During its probe, the NTSB uncovered thousands of prior instances where commercial aircraft and helicopters came within an unsafe distance near Reagan airport. 

A working group formed after a 2013 near-miss in the same location as the 2025 midair collision previously recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration remove or relocate the helicopter route the US Army Black Hawk was using last January, NTSB investigator Brian Soper said at the January 27 meeting.

The agency chose not to adopt the recommendation at the time, he said.

Following the 2025 accident, the FAA evaluated other places in the U.S. considered to be a risk for midair collisions but Homendy told reporters during a break in the meeting that she wasn’t satisfied with that work.

Commercial airlines have raised concerns about Burbank, California, she said, with carriers telling her that “nobody at FAA is paying attention to us.” 

The FAA in January permanently lowered the altitude of aircraft operating around Van Nuys Airport to maintain more separation with aircraft arriving at nearby Hollywood Burbank Airport, the agency said in a statement responding to Homendy’s comments.

Prior to the January 27 meeting, investigators had disclosed several other findings, including that the helicopter involved in the crash was flying too high, was dealing with faulty altitude data and wasn’t broadcasting its position using a technology, known as ADS-B Out. 

The Republican chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Cruz, and the panel’s top Democrat, Maria Cantwell, have teamed up on legislation to tighten the rules that allow military aircraft to fly without having ADS-B Out turned on. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent in December but it has since stalled in the House.  

In addition, the NTSB has said a single air traffic controller was overseeing both planes and helicopters in the airspace above the airport on the night of the crash and failed to warn the American Airlines jet that there was a U.S. Army Black Hawk in the vicinity. 

Soper said that air traffic controllers “heavily relied upon” so-called “visual separation” — where a pilot is authorized to maintain a safe distance from other aircraft using sight — to keep planes and helicopters separate near Reagan airport. 

The military helicopter on the night of the crash had requested and been approved to fly using visual separation. Soper said controllers were “motivated” to grant those requests to alleviate their heavy workloads. 

Since the accident, the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General has opened an audit to assess the FAA’s management of the airspace around Reagan airport, as well as policies and procedures for overseeing ADS-B Out exemptions.