Nonessential helicopter flights will be restricted in the airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and the simultaneous flying of choppers and airplanes around the airport won’t be allowed.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that, on the recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board, those are part of new changes. The recommendations were made in light of the Jan. 29 crash between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter that killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
The FAA is also closing Route 4 between Hains Point at the southern tip of East Potomac Park in the District of Columbia and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and will prohibit the use of runways 15/33 and 4/22 at Reagan National while helicopters on urgent business are flying near the airport.
Prior to the changes, a helicopter on Route 4 traveling at the maximum allowed altitude of 200 feet would have had 75 feet or less of vertical space separating it from a plane landing at runway 33 at the same time, according to the NTSB.
If a helicopter is on urgent business, such as transporting the president, doing high-priority law enforcement work or acting as a medical transport, the FAA will keep that helicopter away from planes.
Air traffic controllers at Reagan National will also limit the use of the visual separation technique outside restricted airspace to Coast Guard, Marine and U.S. Park Police helicopter operations.
On Jan. 29, the helicopter involved in the collision was traveling Route 4. It asked for and received visual separation approval, meaning air traffic control would guide the aircraft so it wouldn’t hit the plane, which was on its way to land at runway 33.
The helicopter was at 300 feet, however, above the maximum allowed height, and subsequently collided with the airplane, the NTSB explained in a report.
