US restricts helicopter flights after deadly Washington crash

WASHINGTON – US authorities restricted helicopter flights near Reagan Washington National Airport indefinitely on Friday, after a midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter killed 67 people.

Officials said that 41 of the victims’ bodies had been recovered by Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration restricted helicopter flights to reduce the risk of another collision as crews worked to pull the wreckage of America’s deadliest air disaster in two decades from the Potomac River.

An FAA official told Reuters the agency was barring most helicopters from parts of two routes near the airport and only allowing police and medical helicopters in the area between the airport and nearby bridges, pending a complete evaluation. It was not clear how long those restrictions would last.

Washington, DC, Fire Chief John Donnelly told reporters that 28 of the bodies recovered so far have been positively identified.

“We expect to recover all of the bodies,” he said. “That’s why our teams are still working.”

Donnelly said moving the plane’s submerged fuselage should improve access to more bodies.

Terry Liercke, vice-president of Reagan National, said two of the airport’s three runways were expected to remain closed for a week. The main runway at Reagan handles about 90 per cent of flights and is the busiest single runway in the United States.

The crash has cast a harsh spotlight on questions about air safety and a shortage of tower controllers at the heavily congested airport that serves the US capital.

Airspace is crowded around the Washington area, home to three commercial airports, multiple military bases and some senior government officials who are ferried around by helicopter. Over a three-year period ending in 2019, there were 88 000 helicopter flights within 30 miles (48 km) of Reagan National Airport, including about 33 000 military and 18 000 law enforcement flights, the Government Accountability Office said in a 2021 report.

The American Airlines plane was trying to land at Reagan National Airport when it collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday evening. Fresh from recovering the plane’s so-called black boxes, divers aim to salvage both aircraft and find additional components on Friday, Washington’s fire department said.

Authorities have not pinpointed a reason for the collision.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it aims to recover the helicopter’s black box, which captures flight data and voices in the cockpit, on Friday.

The FAA is about 3 000 controllers behind staffing targets. The agency said in 2023 that it had 10 700 certified controllers, about the same as a year earlier. (Reuters)

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