The FAA has made permanent the temporary restrictions it imposed on helicopter and vertical lift aircraft operations at Reagan National Airport. The agency issued an interim final rule on Friday but is inviting comments for the action, which will continue to allow only narrowly defined “essential” operations when Runway 15/33 is in use. In turn, when essential flights are using the airspace, ATC will keep regular traffic away from them. Essential flights do not include training missions and are restricted to medical, active law enforcement, active national security, “continuity activities for the Federal government,” or moving the president or vice president. “In short, essential helicopter operations in this area should be exceedingly rare,” the interim final rule says. The rule was published four days before the NTSB is to hold a board meeting on the Jan. 29, 2025, midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional airliner that killed 67 people. The FAA says the interim final rule follows NTSB recommendations. The full document is copied at the end of this story.
The Department of Transportation issued a statement Thursday announcing the interim final rule. “We took decisive action immediately following the January 2025 midair collision to reduce risk in the airspace,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. “This is a key step toward ensuring these improvements remain permanent and we’re continuing to work with the NTSB to ensure an accident like this never happens again.” Other measures taken since the accident, including the permanent closure of the “Route 4” helicopter corridor between Hains Point and the Wilson Bridge that was in use by the Black Hawk when the crash occurred, and further increased use of ADS-B Out by Army helicopter traffic are also part of the interim final rule.
They changed a map, but the same exclusions apply to the military and government officials that caused the accident in the first place.
The FAA is a never-ending joke, only there is nothing funny about it.
Wrong. Training flights like the one that caused the accident are now banned. Read the document: “Routine training, proficiency evaluation flights, and other flights for transportation of personnel that are not involved in an essential operation, as previously described, are not essential operations” and “essential operations explicitly do not include proficiency evaluation flights”
Encouraging that recurring inadequate procedures (acceptance of conflicts as routine) were recognized as the root cause, not the ADS-B tech distractor.
Can’t blame the tech if you push past its altitude resolution and bearing errors inherent in close range conflicts (system time lag induced).
Proof will be in the implementation…but at least “we’ve always done it that way” is no longer the primary justification.
Another example of “FAA regulations written in blood” …
You’re the local controller at DCA working an airliner circling to Rwy 33 when a helo pops up chasing a lawbreaker. What are you supposed to do? Not stated here but on other sites, the controllers can no longer use visual separation. Does the airliner get sent around and resequenced? This is typical knee-jerk FAA rules, hamper ATC instead of actually fixing the problem. Turn DCA into a military base and send all the commercial traffic to IAD, just as soon as you can upgrade the concourses. Ignore the Congress-critters’ cries of hampering their ability to serve their constituents.
I don’t believe we can blame the FAA … the airport is CONTROLLED by the congress in my opinion. The FAA has said it’s dangerous but since congress wants the close-in airport to have too, too, too many flights for their convenience the FAA’s hands are tied. The last time I was there the BIG parking lot right by the door made is clear that it was for congress-critters only … I remember when the FAA would not allow a direct flight that was more than 750 miles … but congress kept “approving” more distant flights … wonder why? I do not work for the FAA but IMHO basically this mid-air was not the FAA’s fault. Fire away.