In a rare and somber admission of accountability, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has accepted full responsibility for the January 2025 mid-air collision near Washington, D.C. Speaking at an aviation summit in Singapore today, Bedford confirmed that the agency will not dispute the NTSB’s scathing final report.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Summary of the Disaster
The NTSB Findings: A Pattern of Neglect
The FAA’s admission follows an NTSB investigation that identified four critical safety lapses:
- Dangerous Airspace Design: The FAA routed heavy helicopter traffic directly into the approach path of commercial runways.
- Safety Warnings Dismissed: The agency reportedly ignored years of data regarding “close calls” in the Potomac corridor.
- Outdated Safety Logic: Investigators criticized the agency’s reliance on “see-and-avoid” visual separation in one of the world’s most congested airspaces.
- Controller Fatigue: At the time of the crash, a single controller was tasked with managing 12 aircraft simultaneously, a workload deemed “excessive” by the NTSB.
Moving Forward: “We Don’t Disagree”
Bedford emphasized that the FAA is moving quickly to implement the NTSB’s 50 safety recommendations, which include permanent changes to D.C. flight corridors and stricter controller staffing mandates.
“We don’t disagree with anything the NTSB has concluded,” Bedford stated. “The safety of the flying public is our sole mandate, and in this instance, we failed.”
