In this article, as rescuers continued retrieving bodies from the frigid Potomac River on Thursday, the deadliest commercial air disaster in the U.S. since 2001 is heightening concerns over congested U.S. airspace into a full-blown crisis.
Just before 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, an American Airlines regional jet collided with a military helicopter near Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport. There were no survivors on either the Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, or on the Army Black Hawk helicopter, carrying three people, officials confirmed.
A series of close calls at airports in recent years has raised alarms among airlines, regulators, and lawmakers. The cause of the deadly collision on Wednesday is not immediately clear. A thorough investigation could take months, if not longer than a year. Officials on Thursday did not attribute air traffic control for the fatal crash.
In a recent incident that raised concerns, a JetBlue Airways plane beginning its takeoff roll at Reagan National Airport in April came within a few hundred feet of a Southwest Airlines flight, which was instructed to cross the runway.
Despite these close calls, there has not been a major fatal commercial airplane crash on U.S. soil since February 2009. Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest since November 2001.
“The system is as safe as it has ever been,” Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan stated in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday morning.
Airline executives have urged consecutive administrations to modernize air traffic control and increase staffing to help ease congestion in some of the busiest corridors in the U.S. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s main runway is the busiest in the U.S., according to the area’s airport authority.
“The system has been in need of modernization for literally decades now,” Jordan remarked. “You’ve got equipment that goes back to the 1960s, and modernizing the equipment actually allows for better management of the airspace, more throughput, so more efficiency.”
