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Aviation expert: Airspace around D.C. airport is particularly challenging for pilots

A helicopter circles over the accident area south of the Ronald Reagan National Airport near Arlington, Va., on Thursday morning.
Tyrone Turner/WAMU/NPR
A helicopter circles over the accident area south of the Ronald Reagan National Airport near Arlington, Va., on Thursday morning.

The airspace in and around Washington, D.C.'s, Reagan National Airport, where an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk collided late Wednesday, is particularly challenging for pilots and air traffic controllers alike, according to an aviation expert speaking with NPR's Morning Edition.

John Cox, a former pilot, says the airport is "geographically constrained."

"It's a … relatively small airport with a lot of traffic going in and out," Cox says. "The procedures in and out of there are special."

Cox says despite the tight airspace, pilots and air traffic controllers are trained to handle the conditions.

"The air traffic controllers are some of the best in the world," he says. "They move a lot of traffic. They move it very effectively."

Cox says investigators will look carefully at the flight path of both aircraft, "particularly, they'll focus on the helicopter and the altitude and the flight path."

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the Black Hawk to pass behind the CRJ passenger jet, according to the Associated Press.

"Considering that air traffic control told them to pass behind the jet, what happened there? And that's going to be one of the central focus items for the investigators," Cox says.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Scott Neuman
Scott Neuman is a reporter and editor, working mainly on breaking news for NPR's digital and radio platforms.