NTSB's probable cause for the January 2025 Potomac midair collision cites the FAA's helicopter route placement and route review failures, along with air traffic control and Army factors
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On January 27, 2026 the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the January 2025 collision between a regional jet and an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport was the FAA's placement of a helicopter route close to a runway approach path and its failure to regularly review helicopter routes and data, and to act on earlier recommendations. The board also cited ineffective visual separation by the helicopter crew, degraded air traffic control performance, and the Army's failure to ensure pilots understood barometric altimeter error tolerances. It issued 50 new safety recommendations, 33 of them to the FAA and eight to the Army.
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