From NPR.

The chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board says that “there’s a serious safety issue” in the airspace surrounding Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The NTSB’s Jennifer Homendy called on the Federal Aviation Administration to implement several “urgent safety recommendations” during a Tuesday news conference. Her comments followed the release of a preliminary investigation report into the Jan. 29 midair collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, which was attempting to land at DCA airport. Both aircraft plunged into the icy Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard.

Homendy described the flight patterns around DCA as “an intolerable risk” as helicopters and commercial planes operate in close proximity to each other in the busy airspace over the U.S. capital. She says an NTSB analysis found that in a 13-year period from 2011 to 2024, there was at least one “close call” each month between a commercial plane operating at DCA and a helicopter.