The National Safety Transportation Board issued its final investigation report for the January 29, 2025 crash of a PSA Airlines Bombardier and an Army Sikorsky helicopter. The Army helicopter caused the collision, causing the deaths of 64 passengers and crew on the commercial airliner and three crewmembers on the helicopter.
Late January 2025 saw a rapid increase in military activity around the nation’s capital. The Army chose this time to conduct night-time training exercises.
One of the primary causes is a familiar one: private companies and the government refusing the implementation of safety features despite known risks. The helicopter did not have collision avoidance or integrated traffic awareness technology that could have warned its pilots of the airliner. The altitude readings also had known errors: known to the government but not known to pilots. In fact, future warnings will not even make it into operator manuals until 2027.
The NTSB also found that the FAA placed the helicopter route too close to the DCA Runway 33 approach path. The FAA failed to act on recommendations to mitigate the risk of collision despite repeated concerns raised by Air Traffic controllers.
Had the helicopter been equipped with an airborne collision avoidance system, the NTSB determined that the helicopter would have gotten the warning eight seconds earlier.
The NTSB made a total of 33 recommendations, including: (1) prohibit operations on helicopter Route 4 when nearby DCA runways were in use; (2) establish more rigorous criteria for approving helicopter routes; (3) require ADS-B In where ADS-B Out is required, including for military aircraft; (4) improve information provided by collision avoidance systems; (5) improve aircraft spacing; (6) reassess arrival rates at DCA; disclose the potential error of helicopter barometric altimeters.
