Burbank Airport At Risk Of Deadly Mid-Air Crash, Federal Investigator Says

BURBANK, CA — The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday sounded the alarm about safety at the Hollywood Burbank Airport, saying airline officials have told her the airport is destined to experience a potentially deadly collision.

Chair Jennifer Homendy made the comments during an NTSB hearing about a mid-air crash between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines plane that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C. last year.

She connected the crash to what she called a series of institutional failures by the Federal Aviation Administration, particularly the mixing of commercial and helicopter traffic. Homendy said there's similar concerns at the Burbank Airport.

"I keep hearing about other areas in the airspace where they are concerned — Burbank is one where commercial airlines have called me to say the next mid-air (collision) is going to be at Burbank. And nobody at FAA is paying attention to us," she said.

The FAA issued a statement following the hearing insisting that it has taken steps to improve safety at the airport in Washington, and at other airfields — such as Burbank and Van Nuys.

The pair of San Fernando Valley airports are fewer than 10 miles apart and serve a mix of aircraft with closely spaced takeoff and landing paths, Reuters reported.

"In February 2025, we began using innovative AI tools to identify similar hotspots with high volumes of mixed helicopter and airplane traffic and implement appropriate mitigations," the statement reads. "One of our primary focus areas was Van Nuys Airport and nearby Hollywood Burbank Airport in the Los Angeles area.

"Based on our safety analysis, the FAA lowered the Van Nuys traffic pattern by 200 feet during an evaluation in 2025 to see if that would reduce conflicts with aircraft landing at Burbank.

"Preliminary data indicated the change resulted in a reduction of Traffic Collision Avoidance System alerts for Burbank arrivals and we permanently lowered the Van Nuys traffic pattern effective Jan. 5, 2026."

Last January's crash came amid years of ignored warnings, NTSB officials said at Tuesday's hearing.

The placement of a helicopter route in the approach path of Reagan National Airport’s secondary runway created a dangerous airspace and a lack of regular safety risk reviews made it worse, the board said. That was a key factor in the crash along with air traffic controllers’ over reliance on asking helicopter pilots to avoid other aircraft.

Throughout the daylong hearing, investigators emphasized the history of missed opportunities to address the risks. Those include the Federal Aviation Administration denying a 2023 request by a regional supervisor to reduce air traffic at Reagan and the failures to relocate the helicopter route or warn pilots more about the dangers after an eerily similar near miss in 2013.

Homendy made no apology for her occasionally stern tone.

“We should be angry. This was 100% preventable. We’ve issued recommendations in the past that were applicable to use. We have talked about seeing and avoid for well over five decades. It’s shameful. I don’t want to be here years from now looking at other families that had to suffer such devastating loss.”

City News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this report.