DCA Accident Spurs Moves To Prevent Similar Traffic Conflicts

The FAA published a media update concerning actions it is taking in response to the January midair collision between a helicopter and commercial airliner at Reagan Washington National Airport in D.C., outlining some initial solutions coming out of ongoing internal rotorcraft safety roundtable discussions. Some immediate actions were implemented to permanently restrict non-essential helicopter traffic and to eliminate mixed traffic in the vicinity of the airport.

The collision exposed hazards involving the mix of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft at DCA, and the FAA immediately began examining other hotspot airports with charted routes for both helicopter and fixed-wing traffic.

The FAA first focused on Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, Nevada due to issues that immediately emerged in the analysis.

One example is that agreements with local helicopter operators require them to avoid arrival and departure corridors that lack defined lateral or vertical measurements. Another is that tower controllers do not issues traffic advisories between returning air tour helicopters and arriving or departing airplanes. This results in routine lack of compliance with Class B separation rules.

The agency immediately implemented positive control over helicopters and began issuing more traffic advisories. This resulted in the number of traffic alert and collision avoidance system reports fell off by 30% in just three weeks.

The FAA is planning additional actions at LAS, and is continuing to analyze other airports as well for issues that, in their assessment, require immediate actions.

An additional item noted by the FAA is that mixed traffic refers to not just airplanes-helicopters, but also mixed operations for example, between slower and faster moving airplanes. The agency is analyzing potential traffic conflicts around closely-spaced airports such as at Hollywood Burbank (KBUR) and Van Nuys (KVNY), airports that are less than ten miles apart, serve a wide mix of aircraft, and have closely-spaced arrival and departure paths.

FMI:  www.faa.gov/