FAA Admits It Missed Dangerous Patterns Leading up to DC Plane Crash, Vows Fixes

FAA criticized for failing to recognize a pattern in the 85 close calls reported around the airport in the three years preceding the crash.

A crane offloads a piece of wreckage from a salvage vessel onto a flatbed truck, near the wreckage site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., on Feb. 5, 2025. Ben Curtis/AP Photo

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told Congress on Thursday that the agency “[has] to do better” in identifying safety threats following January’s deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C., that claimed 67 lives.

During a hearing before the aviation subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, FAA Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau stated that an artificial intelligence-led review of airports with similar helicopter-airplane congestion is expected to be completed within a couple of weeks.