It took 67 people dying before they would do anything, despite the other incidents.

They had to know there was a problem, or they simply weren’t bothering to look at the incident reports….Why bother making reports if no one was gonna do anything with the data? Controllers had complained before about the helicopter flight paths, but NO ONE DID ANYTHING.

No-one at the FAA or the NTSB cared until people died.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy laid out frightening statistics about near misses to underscore the danger that has existed for years near Ronald Reagan National Airport and expressed anger that it took a midair collision for it to come to light.

In just over three years, she said, there were 85 close calls when a few feet (meters) in the wrong direction could have resulted in the same kind of accident that happened Jan. 29 when the military helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet over the Potomac River as the plane was approaching the airport.