Midair collision over nation’s capital preceded by months of near misses, safety warnings

The midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the nation’s capital was preceded by months of harrowing near misses at airports across America, as well as increasingly shrill warnings that the nation’s air traffic control and safety system is stretched to the limit.

Just 14 months before Wednesday night’s fatal mishap near Ronald Reagan National Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration received a safety expert report that warned America’s air traffic control system is suffering from quality control issues and staffing shortages that put safety at risk.

That report warned that “challenges, in the areas of process integrity, staffing, and facilities, equipment, and technology, all have ties to inadequate, inconsistent funding. Together, these challenges contribute to increased safety risk and should be regarded as incident precursor."

The November 2023 report also warned that personnel shortages among air traffic controllers were forcing people to work longer hours and make sudden last-minute changes to flight plans that increased risks.

“Overtime is at a historically high level and increasing,” the report warned. “High rates of overtime for extended periods introduces risk into the NAS. Several associated issues include absenteeism, lower productivity and fatigue.

“When air traffic is rerouted, put into holding, or space is increased between aircraft to accommodate understaffed adjacent areas, the opportunity for mistakes in instruction is multiplied due to the abrupt change in the operation and the increased communications required to facilitate the irregular operation,” it added.

“While each element of risk may not be material, the combined effect of irregular operations necessitated by staff shortages erodes the margin of safety.”

You can read that report here.

A source briefed on the accident told Just the News on Thursday morning that air traffic control asked the flight to adjust its course to a shorter runway at Reagan just moments before the crash.

Regulators acknowledged that in 2023 there were 19 serious near misses at U.S. airports that could’ve been catastrophic, one of the largest totals in many years. 

This past October, the FAA followed up with an audit looking at the increased risks of runway incursions at the nation’s 45 busiest airports.

While that audit was still underway, several harrowing near misses were reported at airports, including at Reagan in Washington, D.C. and with a men’s college basketball team.

Just two weeks ago, the FAA opened an investigation of a near miss in the skies above Phoenix, Arizona. 

The agency said there was a  “loss of separation incident” involving a United B737-900 and a Delta A330-300 arriving at Phoenix Sky Harbor on Jan. 11.

Back in April, a dangerous collision nearly occurred at Reagan.

The FAA said an air traffic controller instructed Southwest Flight 2937 to cross Runway 4, while JetBlue Flight 1554 was starting its takeoff roll down the same runway.

The JetBlue flight had to abort.

Likewise, FAA began investigating an incident at Los Angeles’ main airport in December when a private jet carrying the Gonzaga University men's basketball team nearly crossed a runway as a Delta flight was taking off.

Audio from the control tower showed an alarmed flight controller yelling “stop, stop, stop.“