The head of the Federal Aviation Administration told Congress during a hearing Thursday about a midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people that the agency must do more to ensure flying remains safe.
Watch the hearing in the player above.
The FAA's artificial intelligence-led review aimed at identifying safety threats at other airports with similar helicopter-airplane congestion should be finished in a couple weeks, said Chris Rocheleau, the agency's acting administrator.
During the hearing, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board and members of Congress again questioned how the FAA hadn't noticed an alarming number of close calls near Ronald Reagan National Airport and addressed the problem before the January collision between an Army helicopter and a jetliner. The collision over the Potomac River was the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001.
"We have to do better," Rocheleau said. "We have to identify trends, we have to get smarter about how we use data, and when we put corrective actions in place, we must execute them."
The FAA is using AI to dig into the millions of reports it collects to assess other places with busy helicopter traffic including: Boston, New York, Baltimore-Washington, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and along the Gulf Coast.
Investigators have highlighted 85 close calls around Reagan airport in the three years before the crash that should have signaled a growing safety problem. Rocheleau told the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that every close call is investigated and the data was reviewed before, but this alarming trend was missed.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said there clearly was an issue with identifying trends in the data the FAA collects.
Dailey Crofton, whose brother Casey Crofton died in the collision, attended the hearing.
"I was surprised at the lapses of safety protocols that led to this crash," he said in a statement afterward.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he learned that the Secret Service and U.S. Navy triggered a rash of collision alarms in planes around Reagan Airport on March 1 while testing anti-drone technology that used a similar frequency to the one used by planes' warning systems. Cruz said that happened despite a warning from the FAA against doing it.
"This is deeply disturbing that just a month after 67 people died while on approach to DCA (Reagan Airport), that the Secret Service and Pentagon would inadvertently cause multiple flights to receive urgent cockpit alerts recommending evasive action," Cruz said.
Helicopter traffic around Reagan National has been restricted since January any time planes use the same runway the American Airlines plane that crashed was approaching when it collided with the helicopter. At the NTSB's urging, the FAA permanently banned that particular helicopter route under most circumstances. If a helicopter does use the route, planes are prohibited from taking off or landing on that runway.
The U.S. Army's head of aviation Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman acknowledged that helicopters are still flying over the nation's capital with a key system broadcasting their locations turned off during missions. The "ADS-B out data" is designed to let air traffic controllers track a helicopter's location.
Cruz said this is "shocking and unacceptable."
The Army says the helicopters' highest-priority mission is evacuating top government officials in the event of an attack. Braman said the military has changed its policies governing when aircraft must transmit their location, but many helicopters still fly without the system on.
There were exceptions in the airspace above Washington that allowed Army and other government aircraft to fly without transmitting, or fly in a mode that allowed less information to be transmitted to avoid broadcasting potentially sensitive missions to the public. Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell highlighted a letter from the Department of Homeland Security saying that all Customs and Border Protection flights in the region were also covered by the exceptions.
Rocheleau said FAA plans to now require all aircraft flying immediately around Reagan National to broadcast their locations. But Homendy said it is also important to inspect that equipment to make sure it actually works.
Braman also said the policies governing those different transmission modes — and the level of seniority needed in the Army to waive the transmissions — has since been elevated.
Here's a look at the Jan. 29 crash in Washington:
What happened?
American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members as it approached to land on a clear night. Nearby, the Army Black Hawk, with three soldiers on board, was practicing emergency evacuation routes that would be used to ferry out key government officials in an attack or catastrophe.
Investigators said they believe the helicopter crew was wearing night-vision goggles that would have limited their peripheral vision.
A few minutes before the twin-engine jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked if it could use a shorter runway. The pilots agreed, and flight-tracking sites show the plane turned to adjust its approach. The NTSB now says that any time that runway is used — the one in question accounts for about 5% of the airport's flights — the helicopter route should be shut down.
Shortly before the collision, a controller got an alert saying the plane and Black Hawk were converging and asked the helicopter if it had the jet in sight. The military pilot said yes and asked for "visual separation" with the jet for a second time, allowing it to fly closer than if the pilots couldn't see the plane. Controllers approved the request.
Roughly 20 seconds later, the aircraft collided.
The investigation
The NTSB has recovered all flight data recorders and pulled the wreckage of both aircraft from the Potomac.
Homendy told reporters last month that the Black Hawk's cockpit recorder suggested an incomplete radio transmission may have left the crew unable to hear air traffic control tell them, just before the crash, to move behind the jet.
"That transmission was interrupted — it was stepped on," she said at a Feb. 14 briefing, leaving the helicopter's crew unable to hear the words "pass behind the" because their microphone key was pressed.
The radio altitude of the helicopter was 278 feet (85 meters) at the time, which would put it above its 200-foot (61-meter) limit for that location.
Cockpit conversations a few minutes before the crash indicate that the crew may not have had accurate altitude readings, with the helicopter's pilot calling out that they were at 300 feet (91 meters) but the instructor pilot saying 400 feet (122 meters), Homendy said.
"We are looking at the possibility there may be bad data," she said.
That generation of Black Hawks typically has two types of altimeters: one relying on barometric pressure and the other on radio frequency signals bounced off the ground. Helicopter pilots typically rely on barometric readings while flying, but the helicopter's black box captures its radio altitude.
Almost immediately after the crash, President Donald Trump faulted the helicopter for flying too high. He also blamed federal diversity and inclusion efforts, particularly regarding air traffic controllers. When pressed by reporters, the president could not back up those claims. A few days later, he blamed an "obsolete" air traffic control system that he said should have been replaced years ago.
The Black Hawk crew was made up of an instructor pilot with 968 hours of flight experience, a pilot with about 450 hours and a crew chief with nearly 1,150 hours. Army officials have said the crew was familiar with the crowded skies around Washington.
The victims
The Army identified the Black Hawk crew as Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, 28, of Durham, North Carolina; Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O'Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland. O'Hara was the crew chief, and Eaves and Lobach were pilots.
Among the jet's passengers were several members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from a development camp for elite junior skaters that followed the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. A figure skating tribute event in Washington raised $1.2 million for the crash victims' families.
Others included a group of hunters returning from a guided trip in Kansas: four members of a steamfitters' union in suburban Maryland: nine students and parents from schools in Fairfax County, Virginia: and two Chinese nationals.
Associated Press writer Tara Copp contributed to this report from Washington D.C.