FAA chief accepts failures in deadly mid-air collision

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.