Virginia’s senators want to restrict the number of flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to increase safety after a fatal in-air collision last year.
Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are set to introduce legislation next week that would limit the number of hourly arrivals at DCA, according to a joint statement from the senators on Thursday. The effort comes after an Army helicopter collided with a commercial plane over the Potomac River in January 2025, killing 67 people.
The proposal, which was first reported by The Washington Post, would cap hourly arrivals at the airport to 28. Prior to the 2025 crash, the airport allowed 36 arrivals each hour. That was reduced to 26 following the accident, then gradually increased to the current cadence of 30 per hour.