By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a three-day investigative hearing starting July 30 over the fatal collision in January between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet that killed 67 near Reagan Washington National Airport.
The board will also release thousands of pages of records from its investigation. The NTSB will review the Army Black Hawk helicopter air data systems and altimeters as well as the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of Washington airspace and air traffic, according to the agenda of the hearing released Tuesday.
The hearing is currently scheduled to run over 25 hours during three days. It will include officials from the FAA, Army, airline and others who are expected to release significant new details of the deadliest U.S. aviation crash in more than two decades.
Senators and regulators have raised alarm at close calls involving Army helicopters.
The NTSB said in March that since 2021, there were 15,200 incidents near Reagan between commercial airplanes and helicopters with lateral separation distance of less than one nautical mile and vertical separation of less than 400 feet, and 85 close-call incidents during that period.
“Clearly something was missed,” Deputy FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau told Congress.
Last month, the FAA shrank the area where helicopters are allowed to operate. In March, the FAA imposed permanent restrictions on non-essential helicopter operations to eliminate the chance of collisions, including permanently closing one key route.
U.S. Army Brigadier General Matthew Braman, who was director of Army Aviation at the time of the crash and testified before Congress, is now in a new role at the Army, officials said.
In the aftermath of a May 1 incident in which two passenger airline flights were forced to abort landings at Reagan because of a nearby Army helicopter, the FAA barred the Army from conducting helicopter flights around the Pentagon. The FAA said last month it has been negotiating a memorandum of understanding with the Army to resume flights but it has not been finalized.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
