FAA Mandates Radar Separation for Helicopters and Planes After Deadly DC Midair Collision

FAA Mandates Radar Separation for Helicopters and Planes After Deadly DC Midair Collision

Air traffic controllers will use radar, not just visual checks, to ensure that helicopters maintain a safe distance from arriving and departing airplanes in the wake of last year’s fatal midair collision near Washington, D.C., federal officials announced Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Administration said recent near-misses show that previous guidelines for pilots to maintain visual […]

Congress Questions the FAA, US Army and NTSB over Deadly Midair Collision in DC

Site of mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter

If investigators were able to quickly find alarming data about the number of close calls in the years before the midair collision over the nation’s capital that killed 67 people in January, then aviation safety regulators should have seen the problem, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress on Thursday. NTSB Chairwoman […]

Family of Man Killed in DC Plane Crash Files $250 Million Claim Against FAA, Army

Salvage crews pull up a part of a Black Hawk helicopter near the site.

The family of a Salem man who was killed when a U.S. Army helicopter collided with a passenger plane he was on in Washington, D.C. last month has filed a $250 million claim against the federal agencies involved. According to Robert A. Clifford, who is representing the widow and children of Casey Crafton, the family […]

Trump Begins Firings of FAA Air Traffic Control Staff Just Weeks After Fatal DC Plane Crash

Salvage crews work on recovering wreckage near the site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Probationary workers were targeted in late night emails Friday notifying them they had been fired, David Spero, president […]