FAA to Increase Support, Oversight for Air Traffic Controllers at Ronald Reagan National Airport

There was a collision and a number of near-misses at the airport in recent months.

An American Airlines Airbus A319 airplane takes off past the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 11, 2023. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is increasing support and oversight for air traffic controllers at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport following what it described as a number of “stressful events.”

In a statement, the agency said a Critical Incident Stress Management team will be visiting the airport in early April to provide air traffic controllers with confidential support.

The FAA will also conduct regular wellness checks at the facility, it said.

Additionally, it plans to increase the number of operational supervisors at the airport from six to eight and is reviewing controller staffing numbers. It is also evaluating current hourly arrival rates at the airport, which it said are “disproportionately concentrated within the last 30 minutes of each hour.”

The announcement follows a string of incidents at the airport in recent months, most notably in January, when a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter on a routine training mission and an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided midair, killing 67 people.

Congress and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are continuing to investigate the crash, which was the nation’s deadliest since November 2001.

Other incidents include the March 27 arrest of a 39-year-old employee from Maryland on suspicion of assault and battery after a fight at the control tower, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority confirmed in a statement.

No further details were released regarding the altercation.

The FAA said the employee was put on administrative leave while the fight is being investigated.

In a separate incident on March 28, a close call occurred between a Delta Air Lines passenger jet and four Air Force jets involved in a flyover at Arlington National Cemetery.

The passenger plane had been cleared for takeoff from the airport at about 3:15 p.m. At the same time, the four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon aircraft were inbound for a flyover at the cemetery, the FAA said in a statement.

Due to the proximity of the Delta plane to one of the Air Force aircraft, air traffic controllers issued instructions to both aircraft to divert course to avoid a collision.

The incident continued a pattern of close calls that the NTSB has said have gone on for years around the airport, which has the busiest runway in the nation and is the 24th busiest airport in terms of total flights.

Following January’s crash, the arrival rate at the airport dropped to 26 planes an hour while crews worked to recover the wreckage and victims’ bodies from the Potomac River, though the acting head of the FAA said in late March that arrivals were back up to 30 an hour and could go up to 32.

It is not clear whether the recent incidents will impact those plans.

Speaking at a congressional hearing on April 2 regarding plane maker Boeing’s safety status, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the recent events that have transpired since January’s crash “underscore the precarious situation in the nation’s airspace.”

Such events also suggest “the air traffic organization is under extreme stress,” the lawmaker said.

Andrew Thornebrooke and The Associated Press contributed to this report.