Recent Warnings and Dangerous Conditions at National

Timeline scorecard of events affecting FAA and DCA vis-a-vis January crash  (concerned yet?)

• • • 1/20: Trump sworn in

    • 1/20: FAA chief leaves after Musk demands he resigns  because of $650K penalty for safety violatiuons at SpaceX 

    •  1/21: Air Traffic Controller hiring Freeze 

    •  1/22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded 

    •  1/29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years 

    •  1/30 Trump blames DEI for crash and orders DEI review at FAA

    • 2/26 American flight from Boston aborts landing to avoid a departing aircraft at National 

    •  3/11 NTSB forces FAA to finally take action to ban helicopters from interfering with flight paths New NTSB Rules

      • Investigators uncovered 15,214 “near miss events” between 2021 and 2024 where aircraft were within one nautical mile of colliding, with a vertical separation of less than 400 feet. Additionally, there were also 85 cases where two aircraft were separated by less than 1,500 feet, with a vertical separation of less than 200 feet, according to the NTSB. 

    •  3/27 Insightful comments from FAA Administrator about deadly crash "something was missed" (Really?)

    • 3/28 Near miss between Delta and Military aircraft

    • 3/30 FAA reports 30 near misses at DCA since 1987 of which 10 involved helicopters 

    • 3/30 United flight strikes kite

    • 3/31 Air traffic controller arrested for assualting colleague chaos in the control tower

    • 4/2 FAA to provided intervention and health care services to air traffic controllers crisis intervention for controllers? 

    • 4/8 Federal investigation indicates more civilian aircrarft near misses during  military flyovers  

    • 4/9 Transgender pilot sues influencer for making claims she flew Black Hawk in DC crash Matt Wallace/Trump DEI 

    • 4/10 Two American Airlines jets clip wings on ground at Reagan airport Six members of Congress on board wet pants 

Other Events and Issues

• Air traffic control communications breakdown Near-collision investigation reveals Reagan National Airport controllers failed to stop flights during military flyover 

• <NEW> DCA fight club! 

  • Chaos in the control tower 

  • Crisis intervention for controllers? 

• Are you scared yet? GPS hacking 

• New FAA administrator making the skies more dangerous Politico 

• Great article from AXIOS - "Why Congress can add flights to D.C.'s busiest airport" 

• Read 1/30 article From Democracynow