Deadly Collision Spurs FAA to Wrangle Helicopters in Vegas

Here’s a tale that’ll turn your coffee cold and make you swear off sightseeing by air. The federal folks—those good people at the FAA, who always seem to show up late with a mop after the milk’s already spilled—have poked their heads out from behind their desks and taken a hard look at our nation’s whirlybirds.

A January dust-up in Washington, D.C., between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter turned tragic—snuffed out 67 souls and painted a grim reminder that the sky, unlike a Sunday picnic, ain’t a place for sloppy manners and poor directions. The FAA prodded at the incident like one does with an old mule using a stick, decided to let artificial intelligence root through its mountains of neglected paperwork and figure out where else folks might be dancing too close for comfort in the sky.

Wouldn’t you know, Las Vegas—a town known for gamblers and showgirls, not safety records—popped up on the radar. The FAA discovered that the helicopter operators and air traffic controllers were playing “Guess where I am” with no rules about who flies where or when.

Picture a barn dance where half the folks are blindfolded, and the other half are drunk—that’s about the airspace over Harry Reid International.

Acting FAA head Chris Rocheleau, someone who just remembered where he left his car keys, said they jumped in quickly. They started telling pilots where the other flying machines were, which you’d think would be standard procedure, not divine inspiration.

Lo and behold, the near-smack-ups dropped by thirty percent in three weeks. Miraculous, what a little common sense can do.

Now, there’s talk of expanding the watchdogging to places like Boston, New York, and Dallas—anywhere folks go up in the air hoping to come back down in the same shape. It seems Las Vegas was just the tip of the iceberg, or maybe the first hole in the block of Swiss cheese that safety folks like to yammer about.

Former NTSB boss Jim Hall said the helicopter tour business is an airborne circus—less about safety and more about thrilling Aunt Edna from Omaha. And while the FAA deserves a slow clap for finally doing something, it’s a sorry thing when it takes a pile of bodies to stir the regulators from their slumber.

Jeff Guzzetti, who’s seen his fair share of crash sites, said, “This was a real hazard.”

Now the FAA’s eyes are on places like Van Nuys and Hollywood Burbank, where the runways are so close you could pass a sandwich between departing planes.

In the end, Rocheleau summed it up like a man trying to plug a hundred leaks with one cork–flying is still the safest way to get around, but don’t go betting your luck. They’re trying to get smarter, use the data better, and do something when they find a problem.

Revolutionary, I know.

Aviation lawyer Robert Clifford, usually the FAA’s loudest critic, even tipped his hat. Said the feds might finally be doing what needed doing before that January tragedy made headlines.

So there you have it, folks. The sky’s still blue, the helicopters are still buzzing, and the FAA is, at long last, trying to herd those airborne cats with rules instead of prayers. And about time, too.