Air traffic controllers warned over two years ago that congestion at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport posed growing safety risks, but a senior Federal Aviation Administration official blocked a request to reduce arrivals, citing political concerns, according to internal records released as part of the investigation into a deadly midair collision.

Controllers at the Potomac Consolidated Terminal Radar Approach Control facility in Warrenton, Virginia, asked on May 9, 2023, that the FAA cut hourly arrivals on Reagan National's primary runway from 36 to 32. 

The controllers said they were struggling to maintain required spacing between aircraft and to manage the flow of traffic into one of the nation's most complex and tightly constrained airspaces, where airline arrivals and military helicopter routes operate in close proximity.

An internal FAA memo later made public in the National Transportation Safety Board's docket shows the request was never formally answered and was not forwarded through the FAA management chain. 

The memo says controllers were told the issue was "too political" and that reducing arrivals could draw blowback from lawmakers who depend on frequent service at the airport.

"Controllers were essentially used to, and had begun accepting as the status quo, situations and actions that were both objectively and by-the-book unsafe. They weren't even recognizing unsafe situations, like the one on January 29th, because they were happening all the time," said one person familiar with the investigation. "And they were happening all the time because there was too much traffic coming in and out of the airport."

The warning preceded the Jan. 29, 2025, collision over the Potomac River between an American Airlines regional jet operating as Flight 5342 and an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. 

All 64 people aboard the jet and three Army crew members were killed in what investigators have described as the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster since 2001.

Investigators have said the crash occurred after a series of breakdowns in procedures and safeguards. The jet was vectored late to a shorter runway, placing its approach in an area where helicopters were operating.

The helicopter was flying significantly higher than permitted for its route, and investigators found the crew's night-vision goggles limited peripheral vision during the visual-separation procedures being used.

The NTSB has also said the Army had disabled a system intended to broadcast the helicopter's position, reducing the margin of safety for controllers and nearby aircraft.

After the crash, the FAA temporarily lowered the airport's arrival rate, and investigators have examined how often traffic levels strained controllers' ability to maintain spacing.

The NTSB has also cited a history of close calls in the same airspace as a warning sign that more aggressive risk controls were needed.

The NTSB is scheduled to hold a public board meeting Tuesday to determine the probable cause of the crash and to vote on safety recommendations. The board is expected to address congestion and airspace design among the factors that increased risk, even if it stops short of calling for permanent caps on airline operations.

In the meantime, the FAA has moved to permanently restrict certain helicopter operations near Reagan National, tightening routes and procedures in the corridor where the collision occurred.

Additional changes, including further separation of helicopter and airline traffic, are expected to follow the NTSB's final findings.

• Repeated Close Calls Similar to Collision Near D.C. Airport
• NTSB to Hold Hearing Into Black Hawk-Jet Collision