American Airlines plane crash highlights concerns with U.S. airspace

As rescuers continued retrieving bodies out of the frigid Potomac River on Thursday, the deadliest commercial air disaster in the U.S. since 2001 is bringing long-brewing concerns over congested U.S. airspace into a full-blown crisis.

Just before 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, an American Airlines regional jet collided with a military helicopter near Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport. There were no survivors on either the Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which carried 60 passengers and four crew members, or on the Army Black Hawk helicopter, which was carrying three people, officials said.

A series of close calls at airports in recent years has raised alarms among airlines, regulators and lawmakers. It is not immediately clear what led to the deadly collision on Wednesday. A full investigation could take months, if not longer than a year. Officials on Thursday did not blame air traffic control for the deadly crash.

In one of the recent incidents that raised concerns, a JetBlue Airways plane starting its takeoff roll at Reagan National Airport in April came within a few hundred feet of a Southwest Airlines flight, which was told to cross the runway.

Despite those close calls, there has not been a major fatal commercial airplane crash on U.S. soil since February 2009. Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest since November 2001.

“The system is as safe as it has ever been,” Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday morning.

Airline executives have pushed consecutive administrations to modernize air traffic control and hire more staffers to help alleviate congestion in some of the busiest corridors in the U.S. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s main runway is the busiest in the U.S., according to the area’s airport authority.

“The system has been in need of modernization for literally decades now,” Jordan said. “You’ve got equipment that goes back to the 1960s, and modernizing the equipment actually allows for better management of the airspace, more throughput, so more efficiency.”