US imposes radar monitoring on helicopters around airports following deadly crash

Aviation safety regulations governing how helicopters and other aircraft are kept apart in the skies over United States airports are changing, following a year-long review and AI risk analysis, in the wake of a deadly crash at the start of 2025.

The US Federal Aviation Administration announced the change to air traffic control rules on 18 March 2026, suspending visual separation in favour of the use of radar. “Where helicopters cross airport arrival or departure paths, air traffic controllers will use radar to keep ​the aircraft specific ​lateral or vertical ⁠distances apart,” the FAA said.

Administrator Bryan Bedford, who was appointed in July 2025, said the safety regulator had “⁠identified an overreliance on pilot ‘see and avoid’ operations that contribute to safety events involving helicopters and airplanes.” Addressing that over-reliance, going forward, air traffic control rules would entail “proactively mitigating risks before they affect the traveling public.”

Prior to this, air traffic controllers have verbally warned pilots about nearby aircraft, instructing them to avoid the other craft through visual observation. Several near misses and narrowly avoided disasters have fed into the rule change, but the major incident leading to today’s shift occurred over a year ago, in January 2025. A regional American Airlines passenger jet collided mid-air with a US military Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River, and 67 people were killed.

At the time of the Potomac tragedy, the US Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, assured the public he would “make sure that these mistakes do not happen again and again.” But it was not until months later that helicopter traffic was eventually restricted around the US capital at Reagan Washington ​National and Washington ​Dulles, as well as at other hubs with heavy rotorcraft movements and mixed airspace use.

The modified helicopter routes introduced at the time were described by the FAA as “a precautionary measure that will add an additional buffer between aircraft and increase the separation between helicopters and airplanes operating into and out of each airport.”

Subsequently, it came to light through National Transportation Safety Board data that there had been a shocking 15,200 “air separation incidents” between commercial jets and helicopters near Reagan Washington National Airport alone, including 85 close-call events. It is hoped that the new requirement for active radar tracking of separation distances, instead of relying solely on chopper pilots’ vision, goes some way to address those risks.