Following January’s fatal midair collision at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport (DCA), federal officials have found similar “immediate issues” at Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS).
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said Tuesday that an ongoing national review of United States air traffic safety protocols following the crash uncovered safety issues in Las Vegas that mirrored those that led to the DCA collision on January 29.
The issues at LAS concerned potential clashes between helicopters and airplanes—the two types of aircraft that collided at DCA, killing 67 people. Both types of aircraft also operate out of the Las Vegas airport, as helicopter tours above the city are a popular activity with tourists.
Part of the problem in Las Vegas is that “tower controllers do not issue traffic advisories between returning air tour helicopters and arriving or departing airplanes,” the FAA said. This resulted “in a routine lack of compliance with Class B separation rules,” which state that aircraft should be allotted a minimum of 500 feet of vertical separation and 1.5 miles of lateral separation.
After uncovering the issues, the FAA made immediate changes to safety protocols at LAS, reducing the number of traffic alert and collision avoidance system reports at the hub by 30 percent in three weeks.
Two of the control tower changes include issuing more traffic advisories to pilots and exercising positive control over helicopter traffic, an industry term for more active monitoring of aircraft on radar systems. The agency says that it plans to make additional changes to the safety protocols at LAS moving forward.
The FAA is continuing its safety analysis of what it calls “hotspot airports,” where chartered helicopters and planes share the same airspace. It’s using AI and language modeling to quickly scan safety incident reports and databases to find recurring themes and potential risk areas.
The agency says it has also zeroed in on the competing air traffic around Hollywood Burbank Airport and Van Nuys Airport in the Los Angeles area. Although helicopters aren’t popular at those two facilities, there are still concerning trends, as they’re “less than 10 miles apart, each serve a wide mix of aircraft, and they have closely spaced arrival and departure paths,” according to the FAA.
As they continue their review, officials say they will take any immediate actions necessary to improve airspace safety issues as they arise.
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