Hollywood Burbank Airport saw near collision between plane, helicopter in early March, FAA says

A disastrous collision was narrowly avoided at Hollywood Burbank Airport earlier this month, just weeks removed from officials raising alarms about its safety, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA revealed the troubling development in a news release on Wednesday, where it announced a change in protocol for air-traffic controllers at busy airports. Rather than the long-used technique of visual separation, which is when air traffic controllers advise pilots that other aircraft are nearby by telling them to keep a visual clearance, controllers will now use radar to maintain appropriate space between aircraft.

When announcing the new policy, the FAA used two recent examples of near-collisions at major airports.

One example was at Hollywood Burbank Airport on March 2. A twin-engine Beechcraft Model 99, capable of carrying 15-to-17 passengers, was cleared to land on a runway when its path was conflicted with by a helicopter flying through the flightpath. 

The helicopter's pilot made a right-hand turn to avoid the Beechcraft while their paths were converging, the FAA said.

Another incident cited by the FAA took place in February at San Antonio International Airport in Texas, where an American Airlines flight and a police helicopter nearly collided.

The administration says the visual separation technique wasn't enough of a safety mitigation tool in these instances.

In January, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy warned that Burbank could be the next airport with a major, tragic mid-air collision.

"Burbank is one [airport] where commercial airlines have called me to say the next mid-air is going to be at Burbank, and nobody at the FAA is paying attention to us," she said in a January board meeting. "So whether it is involving helicopters or not, people are raising red flags, and why aren't people listening? The FAA has to ensure safety." 

Concerns come after a January 2025 collision between an American Airlines flight and a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., leaving 67 people dead.