{"id":2412926,"date":"2025-03-12T19:57:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T23:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ntsb-makes-highly-unusual-move-amid-dc-plane-crash-investigation-urgently-recommends-major-change\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T19:57:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T23:57:01","slug":"ntsb-makes-highly-unusual-move-amid-dc-plane-crash-investigation-urgently-recommends-major-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ntsb-makes-highly-unusual-move-amid-dc-plane-crash-investigation-urgently-recommends-major-change\/","title":{"rendered":"NTSB Makes &#8216;Highly Unusual&#8217; Move Amid DC Plane Crash Investigation, &#8216;Urgently&#8217; Recommends Major Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fntsb-makes-highly-unusual-move-amid-dc-plane-crash-investigation-urgently-recommends-major-change%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2412926&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The National Transportation Safety Board has issued an urgent call for action as a result of the Jan. 29 collision between a passenger jet and a helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The collision killed all 64 people aboard the jet, operated by American Airlines subsidiary PSA, and all three aboard the Army Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter that struck the jet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NTSB said that the long-established route followed by helicopters, referred to in the report as Route 4, is fraught with danger.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;Existing separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft landing on runway 33 are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chances of a midair collision,&rdquo; the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ntsb.gov\/investigations\/AccidentReports\/Reports\/AIR2501.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NTSB said<\/a> in its report on the incident.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report called for that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/final-moment-doomed-dc-flight-directed-change-course-runway-33\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">helicopter route<\/a> to be banned when runways 15 and 33 are being used for departures and arrivals. The PSA jet was heading for runway 33 when the collision took place.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"stnvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NTSB also recommended that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/trump-right-obama-faa-policy-penalized-high-aptitude-applicants-even-chicago-tribune-worried-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federal Aviation Administration<\/a> develop an alternate helicopter route for times when the existing one is not allowed to be used.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, called the report &ldquo;highly unusual&rdquo; according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/03\/11\/ntsb-permanent-helicopter-restrictions-reagan-airport\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Axios<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The release of an emergency recommendation requesting the FAA take immediate action, before the completion of the NTSB investigation is rare,&rdquo; she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transportation Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-karoline-leavitt-shreds-chuck-schumer-incredibly-irresponsible-claim-plane-crash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sean Duffy<\/a> said Tuesday that he will follow the recommendations, with the exceptions of VIP and life-saving flights.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report said helicopters and planes are simply too close together.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;At an altitude of 200 ft, a helicopter operating over the eastern shoreline of the Potomac River would have about 75 ft of vertical separation from an airplane approaching runway 33, and this distance decreases if the helicopter is operated farther from the shoreline,&rdquo; the report said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report said that data from &ldquo;2011 through 2024 indicated that a vast majority of the reported events occurred on approach to landing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;Initial analysis found that at least one traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) resolution advisory was triggered per month due to proximity to a helicopter. In over half of these instances, the helicopter may have been above the route altitude restriction. Two-thirds of the events occurred at night,&rdquo; the report said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report said that between October 2021 and December 2024 &nbsp;&ldquo;there were 15,214 occurrences between commercial airplanes and helicopters in which there was a lateral separation distance of less than 1 [nautical mile] and vertical separation of less than 400 ft. There were 85 recorded events that involved a lateral separation less than 1,500 ft and vertical separation less than 200 ft.,&rdquo; the report said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report&rsquo;s bottom line was that &ldquo;existing separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft landing on runway 33 are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chances of a midair collision.&ldquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report noted runways 15 and 33 &nbsp;account for 5 percent of departures and 4 percent of arrivals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy said the 75 feet of separation reported was an &ldquo;intolerable risk to aviation safety,&rdquo; according to <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/dc-plane-crash-ntsb-provide-updates-investigation\/story?id=119664988\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;It does make me angry. But it also makes me feel incredibly devastated for families that are grieving because they lost loved ones,&rdquo; Homendy said. &ldquo;It shouldn&rsquo;t take tragedy like this to occur. Unfortunately, one did, and so we are calling on action, but there clearly were indicators where safety trending could have occurred.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Families of the collision&rsquo;s victims said in a statement the NTSB report shows that &ldquo;serious, systemic failures in air travel safety cost our loved ones their lives and continues to threaten public safety.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;This was not an isolated incident, but a symptom of broader failures in our aviation safety system,&rdquo; the statement said. &ldquo;If the necessary reforms had been implemented sooner, Flight 5342 likely would have landed safely and our family members would be home with us.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Transportation Safety Board has issued an urgent call for action as a result of the Jan. 29 collision between a passenger jet and a helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport. The collision killed all 64 people aboard the jet, operated by American Airlines subsidiary PSA, and all three aboard the Army Sikorsky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2412927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Jet-over-crash-recovery-site.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2412926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Jet-over-crash-recovery-site.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2412926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2412927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2412926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2412926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2412926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}