The Federal Aviation Administration is set to reduce the number of arrivals at Washington Reagan National Airport in DC, after the deadly collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet killed 67 people.

The FAA told airlines late on Wednesday that the reduction from a maximum of 28 to 26 arrivals per hour would reduce future risks – but will also increase average delays from 40 minutes to 50 minutes. 

The email, seen by Reuters, said investigators from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board ‘have expressed concern for our tower personnel on duty, who have an increased level of stress while also having a front row view of the accident recovery.’

The email added that reducing the rate from 28 to 26 ‘will reduce risk and allow a little space for extra coordination.’

Chris Rocheleau was appointed as acting head of the FAA by Donald Trump the morning after the disaster – and on January 30, the President signed a memorandum in the Oval Office, ordering an immediate assessment of aviation safety.

Reagan National Airport is notoriously crowded, and the crossover in the air space between jets and helicopters is routine – but has caused pilots issues for decades. 

But since the catastrophe last week, aviation experts have sounded the alarm over the dangerous airspace over Reagan International Airport as they described last week’s American Airlines crash as a ‘disaster waiting to happen.’ 

Data from the FAA found there were over 30 reports of ‘near-midair collisions’ over the airport as far back as 1987, with at least 10 involving military aircraft, according to NPR. 

Seven of these reports involved military helicopters under chillingly similar circumstances to the American Airlines crash on January 29 that caused the death of 67 people.

One such incident occurred just over 24 hours before the fatal collision, when a passenger jet was ordered to circle around Reagan National and re-try its landing after being warned about a nearby military helicopter.

Retired US Army National Guard pilot Darrell Feller told ABC News this week the American Airlines crash reminded him of a terrifying incident a decade ago.

Feller said he was piloting a military helicopter along the Potomac River near Reagan Airport when an air traffic controller warned him about a passenger jet landing on runway 3-3 – the same runway the American Airlines jet was landing on when it crashed.

He recalled the lights of DC made it impossible to see the jetliner, and he was forced to descend to just 50ft over the river to ensure he would be far lower than the passenger jet.

Feller theorized similar conditions may have led to the American Airlines disaster, recalling: ‘I could not see him, I lost him in the city lights… it did scare me.’

The eerie similarities between Feller’s account of his near-miss and the American Airlines crash echo warnings from aviation experts who say the complex airspace over Reagan Airport may be to blame.

‘This was a disaster waiting to happen,’ Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain and chief executive officer of Aero Consulting Experts, told ABC.

‘Those of us who have been around a long time have been yelling into a vacuum that something like this would happen because our systems are stretched to extremes.’

This comes after authorities confirmed that Black Hawk Army helicopter was in fact flying 100 feet too high when it crashed into the commercial aircraft. 

The helicopter, flown by 28-year-old Captain Rebecca M. Lobach on a routine training exercise, was flying at 300 feet, but the maximum altitude permitted for choppers in the area is 200 feet. 

The black box data recovered from the wreckage in the Potomac River had indicated that this situation likely occurred, but the National Transport Safety Board was waiting on the air traffic control data to confirm the high altitude.

Radar data is rounded to the nearest 100 feet, which means the helicopter was flying anywhere between 251 feet and 349 feet of elevation, the NTSB said.

Meanwhile, the passenger plane was at 325 feet at the time of the crash and had been cleared to land. 

In the split second before the crash, the plane’s pilots made an effort to jerk the aircraft upwards in an effort to avoid the oncoming helicopter.

‘At one point very close to the impact, there was a slight change in pitch, an increase in pitch,’ NTSB’s Todd Inman said in a press conference Saturday night. 

There were no survivors on either flight, and all 67 bodies have now been retrieved from the water.

There were 60 passengers and four crew on board the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, while three soldiers were on the helicopter.

‘This is a complex investigation,’ said Brice Banning, NTSB investigator in charge. ‘There are a lot of pieces here. Our team is working hard to gather this data.’

Banning also discussed the last moments from the jet’s two black boxes, which captured sound in the cockpit and flight data.

‘The crew had a verbal reaction,’ Banning said, with the data recorder showing ‘the airplane beginning to increase its pitch. 

‘Sounds of impact were audible about one second later, followed by the end of the recording.’

Following the sensational disaster, President Donald Trump came out and blamed DEI for the ‘tragedy of terrible proportions.’

The Commander in Chief told the press conference last week that those flying the Black Hawk helicopter should have ‘seen where they were going’. 

Speaking at the White House, Trump said the tragedy was entirely preventable as he slammed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) recruiting practices in federal agencies.

He added that he had some ‘pretty good ideas’ of how the disaster occurred and vowed to make sure it would never happen again.

Trump then said he put ‘safety’ first while Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden prioritized politics and called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a ‘disaster’ in an extraordinary attack on previous administrations.