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FAA plans to change helicopter routes after fatal accident

After the mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional plane and an Army helicopter on January 29, which killed 67 people, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that it plans to change helicopter routes near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Nick Fuller, FAA official, said during a National Transportation Safety Board investigation hearing that a work group of the agency is planning to make changes on a major helicopter route near Reagan. This comes after the agency imposed permanent restrictions in March on non-essential operations and further restricted their operating areas in June.

NTSB officials expressed concern about the "disconnect" that existed between the front-line controllers of air traffic and the agency leaders. They also raised questions about the actions taken by the FAA before the fatal accident, such as why reports about close calls incidents were not followed up with safety improvements.

The board members also expressed concern about the FAA's failure to provide documents on a timely basis during the investigation into the collision in January.

A board report stated that the NTSB was able to obtain details about the staffing levels in place at the time the crash occurred on January 29, "after much confusion and after a series corrections and updates by the FAA."

The hearing lasted more than 30 hours and spanned three days. It raised many troubling questions including the failure of the primary control on duty to alert the American regional plane and the actions taken by an assistant controller, who was supposed assist the primary control.

"That didn't happen and we are trying to understand why." No one knows what the person was doing at that time, said Jennifer Homendy, Chair of NTSB.

Homendy claimed earlier this week that the FAA ignored warnings of serious safety issues.

Homendy stated that the tower had told her of any safety risks.

"You moved people out rather than taking responsibility for the fact that everyone in FAA's tower said there was a... Fix it. "Do better"

FAA officials pledged to work with more collaboration and address concerns at the hearing.

Senator Tim Kaine cited on Friday the concerns expressed by a FAA manager regarding the number of flights at Reagan Airport before the accident and the decision made by Congress to add five more daily flights last year.

Kaine stated that "Congress should act to reduce dangerous traffic by removing all flights in and out of Reagan National".

(source: Reuters)