AI probe of aviation close calls leads FAA to limit how helicopters can fly around busy airports | CNN

Air traffic controllers will now use radar to actively track helicopters when flying through the flight paths of planes taking off and landing at busy airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said in an order published Wednesday. Chopper pilots had been allowed to take responsibility for visual separation with other aircraft in these areas – a process called “see and avoid” – but a series of recent problems drew scrutiny to the practice. On January 29, 2025, a US Army Blackhawk helicopter struck an American Airlines regional jet landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after the pilot reported they had the passenger plane in sight. Sixty-seven people were killed when the aircraft collided over the Potomac River. The National Transportation Safety Board found FAA had raw data showing there were more than 15,000 close calls at the airport between October 2021 and December 2024, but the information was not analyzed until after the crash. Then, the FAA turned to AI tools to evaluate airports across the country where helicopter and airplanes often fly together to look for problems and implement fixes. “Using innovative data analysis, the safety team at the FAA