Alarms raised before fatal Washington collision over busy airspace

After Wednesday's fatal crash, the deadliest US air tragedy since 2001, public officials and aviation experts are resurfacing concerns about how uniquely congested the airspace is around the country's capital.

- George Joseph Joanna Walters

On Thursday, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate armed services committee, Daniel Driscoll, Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the army, questioned why military helicopters needed to conduct training exercises near such a busy commercial airport.

Driscoll vowed to review army practices. "I think we need to look at where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be at an airport like Reagan," he noted.

The US military has provided little information on its helicopter training activities near the capital and did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Martin Chalk, a former British Airways captain who retired in 2020, posited that military pilots might need to train in this particular area to prepare for transporting senior political and military figures to and from the area, which is close to the Pentagon as well as the White House, Capitol Hill and other buildings at the heart of the federal government.