Category: National

(WASHINGTON) — After two deadly plane crashes in the past week — one in Washington, D.C., killing 67, and another in Philadelphia, killing 7 and injuring 19 — it wouldn’t be unusual if travelers reported heightened apprehension toward air travel, according to experts.

“Given the fact that there were two incidents that were pretty large in the past seven days, I would say people that are on the fence about whether or not to book that vacation are probably hesitant to do that,” said psychotherapist and licensed aviator Michaela Renee Johnson.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, around 25 million adults in the U.S. have a fear of flying, also known as aerophobia. It’s not abnormal to be hesitant about airline travel after a traumatic aviation incident, especially when there are casualties involved, said aviation law expert Robert Clifford.

“People tend to immediately think, ‘Uh-oh, they all must be unsafe, and it must be a huge risk for me to fly’ — and they question whether or not they should get on the next flight they have scheduled,” Johnson told ABC News.

Media psychologist Don Grant told ABC News that the way these tragedies are portrayed in the media can trigger new cases of air travel anxiety, or even elevate existing worries.

“If you already have a fear of flying, then you see something like this, it’s like the monsters under the bed are actually real,” Grant said.

When there are life-threatening events, Johnson said the brain uses survival techniques, like the “fight or flight” response, to protect from impending danger. Even though the body might be responding correctly to the recent tragedies, Johnson said it isn’t taking into account the facts surrounding airline travel safety.

“Yes, our brain is doing what it’s supposed to be doing by assessing the risk, but it’s not really considering the fact that in perspective, it’s actually an incredibly safe way to travel,” Johnson told ABC News.

Despite the recent incidents, experts still argue that flying is the safest form of transportation.

In a 2024 study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers found that the “death risk per boarding for worldwide air travelers was 1 in 13.7 million” in the 2018-2022 period. This reflects a steep increase in safety as compared to the previous half-century, following a pattern of the risk of fatalities dropping 50% per decade, according to the study.

The Department of Transportation estimated that 86.8 million passengers were moved by aircraft in August 2024.

But will those numbers persist after the recent crashes?

Johnson told ABC News that it depends: Those who travel frequently for business will still need access to commercial airlines, whereas those who only go on vacation every few years might consider other forms of transport.

Regardless of the statistics, Johnson said many feel a lack of control when stepping into an airplane, causing anxiety to heighten.

“We’re sitting in the back, we don’t know how to fly an airplane, we don’t know what’s happening up front, we don’t know what’s happening in the air around us,” Johnson said. “That can create a lot of discomfort for people. You have to talk yourself through the idea that the pilots also want to get home that night.”

For those struggling to book their next plane ticket, Johnson suggested the following tactics for combatting anxiety: journaling, avoiding flights in the winter or during hurricane seasons, and writing preemptive letters to loved ones (just in case).

But at the same time, Johnson urges others to remember this: “How much of your life are you willing to sacrifice for the fear that you may die?”

“When we think about fear as a motivating factor for a lot of things that we do in our lives, we have to really question how much of it is rational and how much of it is irrational,” Johnson said. “None of us is getting off the planet alive.”

Grant also provided a simple solution to alleviate aviation anxieties: “Put the phone down.”

He recommends reading the news from reliable sources — but not scrolling endlessly online, looking at countless stories on the topic. He also suggested looking into how planes work, reading about the training pilots are required to have or joining am aerophobia support group.

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(NEW YORK) — Donations to Luigi Mangione’s legal defense fund have picked up after a news report that they had slowed down.

Mangione’s online fund has received over $248,000 in donations to help defend him against state and federal charges in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Newsweek reported Tuesday that contributions had slowed to a trickle.

In response, Mangione’s lead defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said, “Luigi is aware of the fund and very much appreciates the outpouring of support. My client plans on utilizing it to fight all three of the unprecedented cases against him.”

The item and the lawyer’s comment prompted a series of Reddit posts that appeared to spark renewed interest in Mangione’s case and donations to his fund.

His legal team just added a court-appointed death penalty expert, Avi Markowitz.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges.

He has not yet entered a plea to federal charges, one of which could result in the death penalty if there’s a conviction.

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(NEW YORK) — Human remains have been found in a suitcase that was drifting in the East River in New York City, police said.

The discovery was made on Wednesday at approximately 5:30 p.m. when authorities from the NYPD Harbor Unit were called to the East River close to Governor’s Island and retrieved the suitcase with the human remains inside, according to ABC News’ New York City station WABC.

The suitcase was subsequently taken to Pier 16 where an initial investigation was launched and authorities confirmed the existence of human remains in the suitcase.

Police did not immediately confirm how long the body could have been there for or if they had any leads on how the individual could be but did say that the medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death in due course.

No further details regarding the case have been provided and the investigation into the death is currently ongoing.

 

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(LOS ANGELES) — At least 37 giant live beetles measuring 4 to 5 inches have been found concealed inside of multiple packages of Japanese snacks, potato chips and chocolate at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said.

The contraband was discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists assigned to LAX during a physical examination of a shipment arriving from Japan via air cargo last month.

Upon inspection, authorities ended up discovering discovered 37 live giant beetles — worth an estimated $1,480 — hidden in packets of Japanese junk food.

“They may look harmless but in reality, smuggled beetles pose a significant threat to our vital agriculture resources,” said Cheryl M. Davies, CBP Director of Field Operations in Los Angeles. “Beetles can become a serious pest by eating plants, leaves, and roots and by laying eggs on tree bark which damages our forests.”

Sought after by collectors and enthusiasts, exotic insects are highly popular and often sold online and underground, authorities said.

“The illegal trade of exotic insects bring hefty profits for those willing to take the risk of circumventing U.S. laws and regulations,” CBP said in their release regarding the case on Wednesday.

Importing live insects into the U.S., require a U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine permit, or a letter issued by PPQ Plants, Pathogens and Biocontrol unit, according to CBP.

The seized beetles were turned over to USDA officials, who will determine the final destination of the insects, meaning they will likely be donated to local zoos that have permits for live insects or be preserved in a local insect collection.

“CBP agriculture specialists combine their scientific knowledge of harmful pests and plant diseases with their expertise in detecting and intercepting these threats before their enter our country,” said Andrew H. Douglas, CBP LAX Port Director. “We are very proud of their contributions to our national security mission.”

On an average day in 2023, CBP agriculture specialists seize an estimated 3,287 prohibited plants, meat and animal byproducts and intercept over 231 agricultural pests that could potentially harm America’s agricultural resources.

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(NEW ORLEANS) — The anticipation surrounding Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans is not just about which team will win, it’s whether or not the city can pull the game off without a serious security breach.

New Orleans has hosted 10 Super Bowls in previous years, but Sunday’s game at the Superdome is different. Just over a month before Sunday’s kick-off, the city was the target of a terrorist attack on New Year’s Day in which a driver racing down Bourbon Street killed 14 people, injured 57 others, and heightened fears among locals that the city is unprepared for the estimated 100,000 visitors expected to arrive this week.

“New Orleans never had a reputation as a high target type place” for terrorism, “it was always ‘the Big Easy,'” said Eric Cook, executive chef and owner of St. John, a restaurant in the city’s Central Business District that is just a short walk from the stadium. The attack, he said, “really made everyone realize we’re all vulnerable at any time. I have concerns about it, I really do.”

Security concerns were heightened this week after President Donald Trump announced he is planning to attend the game, a first for any sitting president.

NFL Chief Security Officer Cathy Lanier said the NFL changed its security plan since the attack and is “constantly monitoring what is going on in the environment and security worlds” in the days leading up to the game. She said more than 2,700 state, federal, and local law enforcement will be present in and around the Superdome and private drones are prohibited. She declined to talk in specific about other measures the league is taking, citing security concerns.

In the weeks following the Bourbon Street attack, the FBI gave the game a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) 1 rating, “defined as a significant event with national and/or international importance that requires extensive federal interagency support,” according to a threat assessment the agency released in late January.

The FBI said the game, along with days of activities leading up to kick-off, make it “an attractive target for foreign terrorist organizations, homegrown violent extremists, domestic violent extremists, lone offenders, hate crime perpetrators, and those engaged in other reportable targeted violence due to their potential to cause mass casualty incidents and draw attention to ideological causes.”

The report warns that a copycat attack is possible since “vehicle ramming has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the west.” Other factors contributing to the threat environment is unrest in the Middle East, the high number of pre-game events in the city, the use of unauthorized unmanned aircraft systems, and the potential of cyberattacks “designed to facilitate short-term financial gain or highly visible, symbolic disruptions.”

Eric DeLaune, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, is tasked with coordinating federal efforts around the Super Bowl. “In the days ahead, there will be a significant increased law enforcement presence in New Orleans, some of which will be visible and obvious,” he told reporters Monday.

A congressional delegation led by Alabama Rep. Dale Strong, the chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology, this week toured the site of the Bourbon Street attack and the Superdome before a briefing by the NFL and law enforcement officials.

“This tragedy could happen in any state, any city—that is why it is so important that we invest in local law enforcement and give them the capabilities they need to prevent crimes before they happen,” Strong said in a statement

Guns allowed, but not coolers

The Bourbon Street attack triggered a state of emergency from the state, which Gov. Jeff Landry followed up weeks later with an executive order that established a wide security perimeter around Bourbon Street, from Canal to St. Ann Streets and Royal to Dauphine Streets. Coolers and ice chests are prohibited and bag checks conducted by the Louisiana State Police will start Wednesday at every entry point leading to Bourbon Street.

For French Quarter residents like Glade Bilby, who has called the neighborhood home for more than 40 years and is president of French Quarter Citizens, a non-profit that focuses on quality of life issues, the added security is “welcome.” He said, however, the security focus on Bourbon Street is limiting.

Another attack “could happen anywhere,” he said. “If this happened on Barracks, Gov. Nichols, it still affects the French Quarter which is an international brand. If you’re really intent on doing evil, you’ll be able to do it no matter what.”

Bilby is among many here who have been vocal all week about the contraction established by Landry which prohibits coolers into the security perimeter while state law allows people to carry in firearms without a permit. “That’s very problematic. It ties one hand behind law enforcement’s back,” Bilby said.

When Landry took office last year, he signed into law legislation to allow for the carrying of a concealed handgun without a permit or training. He rejected pleas from lawmakers in New Orleans to make the French Quarter and other entertainment districts in the city exempt. That means, according to Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche “there’s nothing that can be done legally with respect to people bringing firearms into the French Quarter.”

If law enforcement discovers a checked bag contains a handgun, “they have no recourse but to let them walk into the French Quarter, and that poses a real threat,” Goyeneche told WWL radio last month.

Landry’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. He has not commented on rejecting the carve-out on his gun legislation for the French Quarter but said upon signing the gun bill: “It’s fundamentally clear—law-abiding citizens should never have to seek government permission to safeguard themselves and their families.”

New Orleans City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso said the city will continue to advocate to state lawmakers that an exception should be made to prohibit conceal carry in the French Quarter because the environment is so unique.

“You have so many tourists packed into a small space and we’re encouraging people to drink alcohol inside and outside. That’s the ethos of what is going on there,” he said. “Alcohol and guns don’t mix. This is not a partisan issue.”

Investigations pending

Besides the refusal to carve out the French Quarter as a gun-free zone, concerns remain that the city hasn’t learned a lesson from the security gaps that safety officials have said made it easier for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, to drive a truck for at least three blocks in the early morning of New Year’s Day.

Two investigations — one by the city council and a second launched by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill — are looking into why protective columns designed to block vehicle traffic were removed and why other anti-vehicle barriers were not deployed.

“The People of Louisiana deserve answers,” said Murrill. “We are committed to getting a full and complete picture of what was done or not done, and more importantly, what needs to change so we can prevent this from ever happening again.”

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told the city council she hired former New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton to serve as a consultant to investigate the security lapses.

Bratton did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the investigation.

Still, for all the promises and pending investigations and final reports, the big game will still proceed Sunday. Cook said an outcome without a major safety incident will be critical for businesses like his own that saw traffic drop following the New Year’s Day attack.

“We hope the success of this weekend will generate more trusting folks to come down here and visually see that New Orleans is open for business and we’re safe and we’re prepared,” Cook said.

Giarrusso admitted that New Orleanians are “weary and wary” but have no choice but to move forward.

“The whole point of terrorism is to prevent people from doing what in free society people are allowed to do,” he said. “We have to find a sweet spot of finding reasonable safety protection for people and ensuring we’re leading our lives the way we’re supposed to.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for MLB star Shohei Ohtani, is set to be sentenced Thursday on federal charges related to stealing nearly $17 million from the Dodgers player, nearly a year after the gambling controversy first surfaced.

Mizuhara, 40, admitted to fraudulently transferring the money from Ohtani’s account for more than two years to pay his gambling debts, including impersonating the athlete on two dozen occasions in calls to the bank, according to a plea agreement in the case.

Prosecutors called the scheme “deep” and “extensive” fraud and that Ohtani was “harmed substantially” by Mizuhara’s actions.

Mizuhara pleaded guilty last year to one count of bank fraud, which carries a maximum of 30 years in prison, and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, which carries up to three years in prison. A sentence of 48 months was recommended by the probation officer.

Mizuhara, a permanent resident of the U.S., also faces a risk of deportation back to his native Japan upon completion of the federal sentence, prosecutors said.

Mizuhara asks judge for mercy

In a three-page letter to Judge John Holcomb filed ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Mizuhara asked for a “merciful and not punitive” sentence and set out to explain why he committed the fraud.

He described mounting financial stresses that he said led him to use an online sports betting website run by Mathew Bowyer starting in 2021. He said that due to his “ignorance to the gambling industry,” he did not realize it was an illegal gambling business until early 2024.

“Being desperate for money at the time, I stupidly thought this might be an opportunity to help myself out financially and started to use his website for sports betting. And before I knew it, the results were the complete opposite,” Mizuhara wrote. “My gambling debt had grown so much that I could not find any way to pay it but to use Shohei’s money … I felt terribly guilty about putting my hands on his money but this was the only solution I could think of at the time.”

Mizuhara also said that the offseason was “physically and mentally” harder while detailing some of his errands for Ohtani, such as driving him to trainings, taking his dog to the vet and fixing his bicycle — saying he had “almost no true days off.”

“I felt like I was getting severely underpaid but I was afraid to speak up for myself as I was on a one year contract every year and I didn’t want to upset them and end up getting fired,” he wrote.

Mizuhara said he hopes to use his experience to help others dealing with gambling problems. He also outlined the impact a prison sentence would have on his wife.

“I understand that I have made a decision that will impact my entire life and I am not making excuses for what I have done. I am not trying to justify my actions in any way. I am asking that you will look at me as a man and believe change can happen,” he said. “I don’t believe an apology will fix my wrong. I am prepared [to] accept my consequences. I am asking for a little mercy from the court concerning my sentence you will hand down.”

He lastly said he is “truly sorry” for violating Ohtani’s trust in him.

Defense, government make case for sentence

Mizuhara’s attorney asked the judge to impose an 18-month sentence, arguing in a memorandum that the interpreter was devoted to his work for Ohtani but suffers from a “longstanding gambling addiction, which was uniquely exacerbated by his grueling work and exposure to high-stakes bookmakers in the world of professional athletes.”

Mizuhara “made a terrible mistake as a result of his serious gambling addiction, an anomaly in an otherwise law-abiding life in which he was dedicated to his career as an interpreter for Mr. Ohtani and other baseball players,” his attorney, Michael Freedman, wrote.

The defense attorney also said Mizuhara’s reputation here and in Japan has been “irretrievably stained” and that he “will continue to suffer as a result of harm to his reputation and career in the global press and through certain deportation.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, asked the court to impose a prison sentence of 57 months while disputing what they called “unsupported claims” by the defense on the extent of Mizuhara’s gambling problem and the financial problems he had said led him to Bowyer’s illegal sports betting business.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell wrote in a response to the defense’s sentencing filings that the government could find no proof of a long-standing gambling addiction, and that Mizuhara did not have “such a ‘tremendous debt’ that it forced him to steal millions of dollars from Mr. Ohtani, as he claims.”

Mitchell also questioned whether Mizuhara is “truly remorseful or whether they are just sorry they were caught” and highlighted portions of Mizuhara’s letter to the judge, in which he detailed his offseason duties for Ohtani.

“The government does not question defendant’s work ethic, but only his characterization of the work and his true intention,” Mitchell wrote. “Instead of using this opportunity to apologize and show true remorse, he has used it, in a public filing, to complain about his work and Mr. Ohtani.”

In addition to the prison sentence, the government asked for three years of supervised release, restitution of $16,975,010 to Ohtani and $1,149,400 to the IRS.

Sentencing comes nearly year after firing

Mizuhara worked with the Angels as Ohtani’s interpreter and then in the same capacity with the Dodgers, until the team fired him nearly a year ago, in March 2024, after the gambling controversy surfaced.

Ohtani addressed the scandal at the time during a press briefing, saying in a prepared statement through an interpreter, “I am very saddened and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this.”

Mizuhara pleaded guilty to the federal charges in June 2024.

According to the plea agreement, from November 2021 to March 2024, Mizuhara transferred nearly $17 million from the account to associates of the bookmaker in more than 40 wires without Ohtani’s permission.

Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers prior to last year, the richest deal in sports history.

Bowyer pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for running an illegal gambling business that took unlawful sports bets from hundreds of customers, including Mizuhara, the Department of Justice said. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

Mizuhara also admitted in the plea agreement to falsely claiming that his total taxable income for 2022 was $136,865 when, in fact, he failed to report an additional $4.1 million in income.

“The source of the unreported income was from his scheme to defraud the bank,” the DOJ said, noting that he owes approximately $1,149,400 in additional taxes for the tax year 2022, plus additional interest and penalties.

His sentencing has been postponed several times after the defense asked for more time to prepare and for a forensic psychologist to complete a report about Mizuhara’s gambling.

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(NEW ALBANY, Ohio) — Police are looking for a motive after a man allegedly killed one person and injured five others in a workplace shooting at an Ohio manufacturing facility, officials said.

Officers responded to an active shooter report at a New Albany facility run by KDC/One, a beauty products manufacturer, around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, New Albany police said.

One victim was found dead inside the building and five others were hospitalized in unknown conditions, police said.

About 150 employees were safely evacuated, police said.

The suspect, identified as employee Bruce Reginald Foster III, fled the scene just before police arrived, New Albany Police Chief Greg Jones said.

Foster, 28, was taken into custody Wednesday morning at a home in Columbus, Jones said.

A motive remains under investigation, Jones said at a news conference Wednesday.

Authorities interviewed the evacuated employees and “nobody had reported that there was any conflict or that [Foster] was in trouble at work,” Jones said.

The chief described the victims as Foster’s co-workers and said they likely knew each other.

New Albany is a safe community, but “any community in America can fall victim to random workplace violence,” New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding said at the news conference.

Foster legally bought the gun used in the shooting in September 2024, authorities noted.
 

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(SEATTLE, Wash.) — The right wing of a taxiing Japan Airlines flight hit the tail of a parked Delta plane at Seattle’s SeaTac Airport on Wednesday, according to the airport and the Federal Aviation Administration.

No one was injured but passengers on both flights were forced to deplane, SeaTac Airport said.

Delta Flight 1921 was set to fly to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with 142 customers on board.

Delta said in a statement, “While in sequence for deicing, the tail of a Delta 737 aircraft reportedly made contact with a wing tip of another airline’s aircraft. There are no reports of injuries for crew or customers on the flight, and we apologize for the experience and delay in travels.”

The FAA said it will investigate.

“The aircraft were in an area that is not under air traffic control,” the FAA noted.

The airport said the incident had a “minimal impact” on its operations.

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(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency faces its first major legal hurdle this afternoon when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., considers blocking the newly formed arm of the federal government from accessing sensitive records from the Treasury Department.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is hearing arguments Wednesday over whether she should issue a temporary restraining order prohibiting DOGE from accessing or using Treasury Department data as part of DOGE’s effort to trim the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump.

The hearing follows a lawsuit filed by three federal unions that alleged DOGE employees violated federal privacy laws when they accessed data from the Treasury Department, including the names, social security numbers, birthdays, bank account numbers, and addresses of taxpayers.

“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the lawsuit alleged.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the Service Employees International Union, and the Alliance for Retired Americans alleged that Musk and DOGE — with the consent of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — unlawfully accessed the sensitive records without providing any legal justification, public reasoning, or legal procedure to collect taxpayer data.

According to the lawsuit, DOGE’s “full, continuous, and ongoing access” of sensitive data risks the security of millions of Americans.

“People who must share information with the federal government should not be forced to share information with Elon Musk or his ‘DOGE.’ And federal law says they do not have to,” the lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs requested a temporary restraining order preventing the Treasury Department from providing DOGE sensitive information as well as enjoining DOGE employees from using any of the records they might have already obtained.

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(WASHINGTON) — Pilots and air traffic controllers notified authorities about airplanes and helicopters flying alarmingly close at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in at least 15 incident reports dating back to 1991, according to an ABC News review of the reports.

Some of the reports warned that the flight space was “an accident waiting to happen” with others describing scenarios eerily close to what occurred when a military Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 last week as the passenger jet approached the airport.

“One of these incidents would have been too many,” said former Air Force pilot and ABC News aviation consultant John Nance. “This barometer is in the red. It’s telling us there is a real problem here. There is a very, very clear track record of something that needs to be fixed.”

There are at least four reports of safety incidents associated with runway 33, the same runway that AA 5342 was approaching when the collision that took 67 lives occurred.

“This has been happening too many times over the years, and it’s now led to a tragedy that could have been prevented,” said Steve Ganyard, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot and ABC News contributor.

The safety reports were filed with the Aviation Safety Reporting System, a program established by the FAA and managed by NASA that enables professionals within the aviation community to voluntarily and confidentially report safety concerns and incidents in a non-punitive manner.

In response to questions from ABC News, the FAA said, “Due to the ongoing NTSB investigation, we cannot provide information at this time.” The FAA added that ASRS reports are “one of many data sources we use to identify system-level safety risks.”

The reports detail accounts of airplane flight crews at DCA who were surprised by helicopters flying too close, oftentimes describing near misses in the air within just hundreds of feet.

One captain for a major carrier went so far as to call DCA “probably the most dangerous airport in the United States” in a report concerning their broader safety concerns about flying in and out of the airport.

In 2015, the flight crew of a regional jet reported a near mid-air collision when it was switched from landing on runway 1 to runway 33 at DCA, coming “within very close contact” of a helicopter also in air. The safety report continues, “This occurred about 400 feet off the ground to the point where the pilot monitoring had to take the controls to make a correction in order to prevent it from becoming a midair collision.”

The reporting crew says that only after taking action to avoid a collision was the regional jet informed by DCA air traffic control of the close traffic, with the flight crew adding “at that point it would have been too late.”

American Airlines Flight 5342 was also switched to runway 33 after lining up for runway 1, in order to keep traffic moving, a common practice at DCA.

It is not yet known whether air traffic control ever communicated the helicopter’s close proximity to the American Airlines flight crew, though the Black Hawk helicopter was asked if they had the airplane in sight and replied that they did.

One airplane captain reported a near mid-air collision with a helicopter in April 2024, writing, “We never received a warning of the traffic from ATC so we were unaware it was there.” The captain urged “better separation for DCA traffic on the river visual to the helicopter traffic that is flying up and down the river.”

In 2013, an airplane captain reported coming within 200 feet of a military helicopter while approaching DCA to land, writing, “There are always numerous military and government helicopters running up and down that river at all times of the day and night. Because of this, what would normally be alarming at any other airport in the country has become commonplace at DCA. The FAA allows these aircraft to operate in this environment and we have no choice, but to accept it and deal with it.”

The concerned airplane pilot in that incident continued, “I cannot imagine what business is so pressing that these helicopters are allowed to cross the paths of airliners carrying hundreds of people!”

Nance said this collection of safety incident reports “details a tale of dress rehearsals for what happened last week.”

In a separate incident report filed in 1997, an airplane first officer detailing a close encounter with a military helicopter said, “I was not comfortable with the level of safety involved with flying within 400 ft [vertically] of a heli and that is considered a normal op.”

In 1993, a captain of an airplane that came close to a helicopter flying above the Potomac River said, “This heli conflict around DCA is a daily prob!… This is an accident waiting to happen.”

In 1991, yet another flight crew reporting a converging flight path with a military helicopter wrote, “Here is an accident waiting to happen.”

Nance said an examination of these reports illustrates “flight crew confusion at critical junctures in the approach caused by alarming interactions with helicopter traffic,” “wildly variable altitudes flown by the helicopter traffic,” and “overburdened tower controllers” who “appear to consider the pace of operations and the number of close calls with helicopters in critical areas as business as usual.”

“The helicopter routes around DCA allow for little margin for error,” Ganyard said. “You cannot have aircraft constantly flying so close together and expect to maintain safety.”

“In the AA crash we see the consequences of a minor mistake becoming a tragedy,” Ganyard added. “Step one for the FAA is to reroute helicopter traffic around DCA.”

In the aftermath of the crash last week, the FAA restricted helicopter traffic over the Potomac River around DCA while the NTSB completes its preliminary investigation. At that point, the FAA said, it will review the airspace based on the NTSB’s report.

The Aviation Safety Reporting System was established in 1976 to “support the FAA in its mission to eliminate unsafe conditions in the national aviation system, and prevent avoidable accidents,” according to its website. The program is managed by NASA as an independent third party with no regulatory or enforcement role, which says it “ensures that de-identified incident data and the results of special studies are communicated to those responsible for aviation safety.”

On its website, the FAA said it established it is “a positive program intended to ensure the safest possible system by identifying and correcting unsafe conditions before they lead to accidents.”

In a report last year on near mid-air collisions, ASRA said, “Such incidents are independently submitted and are not corroborated by NASA, the FAA or NTSB. The existence in the ASRS database of reports concerning a specific topic cannot, therefore, be used to infer the prevalence of that problem within the National Airspace System.”

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