The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is permanently restricting non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan National Airport following a fatal hollow collision with American Airlines' regional jets in January.
The change is an attempt to improve safety around the airport just outside the country's capital of Washington, D.C.
In January, a US Army Black Hawk helicopter with three crew members collided with a 64-person American Airlines jet. Both aircraft crashed near the airport. All 67 people were killed.
The FAA announcement follows the release of a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigating crashes.
The FAA also announced on Friday that it would eliminate mixed helicopter and fixed wing traffic from the airport.
It said it evaluates other routes of helicopters commonly used in Washington.
New restrictions allow helicopters to fly airport airspace only for emergency issues, such as life-saving medical reasons, priority law enforcement, and presidential transport, but the agency says it aims to keep them away from the plane.
Additionally, runways 15 and 33 are located near where the fateful American Airlines flight is a few seconds away from landing, when the helicopter is in the area.
Earlier this week, US Airways Collision Investigators recommended restricting helicopter flights in certain areas near the airport.
The FAA also evaluates other cities with chartered helicopter routes, including Boston, New York, Detroit, Dallas, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.
“To make us more predictable, we use machine learning and language modeling to scan incident reports and mining multiple data sources to find areas of theme and risk,” according to the agency's statement.
