The FAA is reviewing helicopter routes at multiple airport locations where airplanes and rotorcraft mix, FAA acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau told lawmakers on Thursday. Testifying before the Senate aviation subcommittee on the midair collision of a U.S. Army Black Hawk and PSA Airlines CRJ-700 on January 29 near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA), Rocheleau said the agency is using machine learning to mine tens of millions of data points to identify risks of mixed traffic.

Earlier this month, the NTSB issued two urgent safety recommendations to permanently prohibit helicopter operations on Route 4 near KDCA when the airport’s runways were being used for departures and arrivals, as well as for the FAA to designate an alternative helicopter route.

Rocheleau said those recommendations aligned with its temporary action in the wake of the crash that killed all 67 aboard both aircraft combined, and the FAA has since taken steps to make the restrictions permanent. When essential helicopter operations are necessary—such as medical, law enforcement, and presidential transport—then the airspace would be cleared of airplane traffic to avoid mixed traffic.

“We are continuing to analyze other airports that have both charted helicopter routes and nearby airplane traffic,” Rocheleau said. “The FAA also is assessing the Gulf of America, including offshore helicopter operations.”

Plans call for a more comprehensive review involving three steps: immediately examining 10 locations around the U.S. considered “hot spots,” conducting a nationwide review, and then continuously analyzing potential risks with industry partners through a newly formed Safety Risk Management Panel, Rocheleau explained. “We will take immediate action if needed to mitigate any identified safety risks.”

In addition, Rocheleau noted that the FAA will require all traffic to keep ADS-B Out activated with extremely limited exceptions. This also became an issue when lawmakers found that the U.S. military had been routinely turning off ADS-B.

Rocheleau faced critical questioning on why the FAA had not previously acted on numerous reports of close calls. In releasing its urgent recommendations surrounding KDCA, the NTSB found there were 15,214 close-proximity events between helicopters and airplanes from October 2021 to December 2024. Of these, 85 incidents involved less than 1,500 feet of lateral and 200 feet of vertical separation at KDCA.

At the hearing, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy also reiterated that the route around KDCA posed an “intolerable risk to aviation safety.”

Aviation subcommittee Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) wondered if the FAA ever evaluated the safety data that appeared “so important.” Homendy noted that there has been discussion about the need to improve that analysis. “This is the wake-up call that suggests changes need to be made,” Moran said.

“I am very concerned about what we’ve learned. Clearly, something was missed,” agreed Rocheleau, adding that’s why the FAA is putting machine learning in place to review the tens of millions of data to find these trends.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the ranking minority member on the Senate Commerce Committee, asked if the air traffic office ever brings up the data or obtains input on whether there are too many close calls. “That's the issue. You had an alarm going off once a month. You had the data. And while I get that AI is this very new and interesting technology, it's no substitute for the FAA having an oversight over this level of traffic,” she said.

Also concerning are the potential problems in other areas of the National Airspace System, Cantwell added while noting that Washington state alone has 10 military installations. “We want to know, do we have to worry about this somewhere else because the FAA isn't looking and doesn't have an organization that is overseeing this information?”

Rocheleau responded: “I agree 100% with you. This is of utmost concern to me, not just in the D.C. area…This is one of the reasons why we have a task force working on what we're calling ‘hot spots’ to ensure that we're looking at airspace design, wherever we have mixed traffic.”

Cantwell added that there was risk. “It was being sounded in an alarm, and it wasn't being addressed. So now we have to figure out why that wasn't being addressed. There's a lot of information here that says very high risk. So why was that ignored?”

Lawmakers also focused on the military exemptions from requirements for activated ADS-B. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) strongly urged the U.S. Army to revisit its policy. Rocheleau said operations across government agencies are immediately mandated to turn on ADS-B in affected Class B airspace around D.C. except in very limited circumstances.