FAA chief accepts failures in deadly mid-air collision

By Joe Brock

SINGAPORE, Feb 2 (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Aviation Administration head Bryan Bedford said his agency accepted findings by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board that a series of systemic ‍failures by the FAA led to a devastating mid-air collision that killed 67 people last year.

The January 2025 collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades.

The NTSB determined last week ‌that the accident was caused by the FAA’s ‌decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes and its failure to review data and act on recommendations to move helicopter traffic away from the airport.

“We don’t ​disagree with anything that the NTSB has concluded from their investigations. Many of the recommendations have already been put into action. Those ‍that haven’t, we’re going to evaluate,” Bedford ​told reporters on the sidelines of an aviation conference ​in Singapore.

Separately, Bedford declined to say if the FAA would decertify Canadian-made ‍planes after President Donald Trump threatened last week to do so if Canada did not approve some of U.S. private jet maker Gulfstream’s models.

“Our concern is whether or not sufficient resources are being applied to U.S. products equal to the resources that we’re applying ‍to certify foreign products. So we just want a level playing field,” Bedford said.

Canadian officials said last week they were working to resolve the dispute ‍after Trump’s threats to ‍decertify ‌and slap tariffs on Canada-made aircraft sent shares ​of business jet maker Bombardier down 6% on ​Friday.

Airline officials ⁠said if the U.S. could decertify airplanes for ‌economic reasons, it would give other countries a powerful weapon and could put the entire aviation system at risk.

Bedford said the FAA was still evaluating a request by Boeing to increase production of its best-selling 737 MAX aircraft from 42 per month to 47 per month.

(Reporting by Joe Brock; Editing ⁠by Jamie Freed)