Army adjusts tracker policy following fatal DC Black Hawk collision

The Army has made changes to how its helicopters use a safety system that broadcasts aircraft location and has reduced the number of flights over Washington following a collision with a passenger jet that killed 67 people, the head of Army aviation told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Investigators are still determining why the Army helicopter and the American Airlines jet collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29, but the Federal Aviation Administration has data showing an alarming number of close calls around the airport.

The safety system, called ADSB, short for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, has become a flashpoint as some have pointed to the likely lack of use by the Black Hawk helicopter that night as a potential cause of the crash.

The ADSB-out part of the system is designed to help air traffic controllers and nearby planes better track an aircraft’s location with position updates every second. But it can also allow anyone — including a plane enthusiast on the ground — know precisely where a helicopter or airplane is located. Army helicopters in the past have turned off the system for many missions because they were deemed sensitive.

The Army’s head of aviation, Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, said there now will be fewer flights with the ADSB-out data turned off.

And also fewer VIP flights

In the months since the crash, the Army has halted the vast majority of flights it was conducting for general officers ranked three stars and above, to ferry them from the Pentagon’s helipad to regional locations.

It has only resumed limited flights for the defense secretary, deputy defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while a limited number of other senior military leaders can fly from Virginia’s Fort Belvoir, Braman said.

The Army’s 12th Battalion is one of 28 agencies that used the low-altitude helicopter routes around Ronald Reagan National Airport. That includes the Department of Defense, individual military services, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, the National Guard, Coast Guard and others.

Changes to ADSB-out policy

Before the collision, the Army was exempt from broadcasting ADSB-out data during sensitive missions, according to an August 2024 memo obtained by the AP. Those missions could include ferrying a senior leader or training for an emergency where transmitting a landing location could expose sensitive tactical information on reaction plans. The Army still has that exemption, but is making changes to how it flies so the exemption won’t be used as often, Braman said.

In past training and evaluation flights — such as on the night of the crash — crews combined normal flight routes with practice landings at sensitive locations. That meant they had to fly with ADSB-out switched off for the whole flight, according to the memo.

Now crews are separating normal training and evaluation flights from flights that rehearse the classified continuity of government mission, Braman said. That reduces the number of flights where ADSB-out data will be turned off.

“If they are not going to one of those sensitive locations it should 100% be on,” Braman said.

It’s assumed the three Army crew who were killed in the crash were flying with ADSB-out turned off, but crash investigators have not concluded that yet, he said.

The other part of the system, ADSB-in, pulls in location data from nearby planes and helicopters. Few Army aircraft had ADSB-in, due to the cost, and were not required to have it. The Army has now authorized the purchase of 1,600 ADSB-in systems for its helicopter fleet.

Army says the helicopter’s location was still known

Even if ADSB-out was off, the Black Hawk’s transponder was in use and transmitting its position, Braman said.

The FAA says ADSB-out data is more precise than the radar data communicated by a transponder, which, depending on the mode in use, can shield some aircraft information. The night of the crash, the Black Hawk was transmitting in three transponder modes — A, C and S — which combined gave the helicopter’s identity, location and altitude. “There was no question where that aircraft was,” Braman said.

There was “no point” during the flight where the jet and the airport control tower could not see the Black Hawk, he said.

“I think there’s still a perception out there — I know there is — that the aircraft with ADBS-out in that segment around DCA were invisible. And that is so far from the truth,” Braman said.

As a result of the crash, the FAA has permanently closed a route along the Potomac River that directly intersected the flight path for the runway where January’s collision took place.