US Politics
Officials fear that this California airport could be the site of the next midair collision
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A top transportation official warned that the Hollywood Burbank Airport — located in Los Angeles County, California — could be the site of the next deadly mid-air collision.
Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, delivered the sobering message during a board meeting in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
It took place on the one-year anniversary of a crash between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter above the Potomac River, near Reagan National Airport, which claimed 67 lives, becoming the deadliest commercial aviation accident in the U.S. in over a decade.
“Burbank is one where commercial airlines have called me to say the next midair is going to be at Burbank,” Homendy said, according to The Los Angeles Times. She added that no one at the Federal Aviation Administration “is paying attention to us.”
The midsized airport, a hub for domestic travel, is considered a “hotspot,” given its combination of airplane and helicopter traffic in a relatively small airspace.
“Whether it is involving helicopters or not, people are raising red flags, and why aren’t people listening?” Homendy added. “The FAA has to ensure safety. That is their job.”
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The FAA, which oversees the safety of the country’s airspace, disputed her account. A spokesperson for the agency told The Independent that it has bolstered security measures and that it has not overlooked Burbank.
Following the deadly crash in the nation’s capital, the agency “acted immediately to improve safety” and “began using innovative AI tools to identify similar hotspots with high volumes of mixed helicopter and airplane traffic and implement appropriate mitigations,” the spokesperson said.
“One of our primary focus areas was Van Nuys Airport and nearby Hollywood Burbank Airport in the Los Angeles area,” the FAA added. “Based on our safety analysis, the FAA lowered the Van Nuys traffic pattern by 200 feet during an evaluation in 2025 to see if that would reduce conflicts with aircraft landing at Burbank. Preliminary data indicated the change resulted in a reduction of Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alerts for Burbank arrivals and we permanently lowered the Van Nuys traffic pattern effective Jan. 5, 2026.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Burbank airport told The Independent that “the safety of our guests, staff, tenants and all stakeholders…is our top priority.”
“As the FAA has stated in response to yesterday’s NTSB comment about ‘safety hotspots,’ work to help alleviate the risks at Hollywood Burbank Airport and Van Nuys Airport has been underway since immediately after the midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport in January of 2025,” the spokesperson added.
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Hollywood Burbank Airport has experienced several close calls in recent years.
For example, in 2023, an inbound Mesa Airlines flight came within 1,680 feet of a SkyWest Airlines plane as it was departing a runway, according to the LATimes.
A representatives for the NTSB did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
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During the board meeting on Tuesday, Homendy, who has led the NTSB since 2021, added that last year’s catastrophic collision in Washington was “100 percent preventable.”
Following an investigation, the NTSB concluded that the crash was likely caused by the FAA’s decision to place a helicopter route near an airport runway, according to Politico.
The FAA said it will “diligently consider” the board’s recommendations, adding that safety “is and always will be” the agency’s number one priority.
Commercial airline crashes in the U.S. remain extremely rare. Before the mass casualty collision in Washington last year, it had been nearly 16 years since a major airline crash in the country.
