Public Transport Safety

The NTSB concluded that "deep, underlying systemic failures" led to the January 2025 midair collision near Reagan National between an Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines jet, citing an instrument failure that likely made the helicopter appear about 100 feet lower and a flawed, previously‑flagged helicopter route design. Investigators found FAA data showing more than 80 prior serious close calls in the Potomac corridor that went unaddressed, no evidence of required recent route reviews, and operational breakdowns—one overwhelmed controller handling both helicopter and fixed‑wing traffic who did not issue a safety alert and a supervisor who did not split positions—prompting calls for major changes to ATC procedures and FAA oversight.

After the Nov. 4, 2025 Louisville crash that killed three crew and 12 people on the ground, UPS announced it has retired its entire MD‑11 freighter fleet—about 9% of its aircraft—took a $137 million after‑tax charge and is leasing planes, shifting aircraft from overseas and taking delivery of 18 Boeing 767s over the next 15 months to rebuild capacity. The FAA has grounded all MD‑11s while it reviews “all the facts and circumstances,” and NTSB investigators reported a fractured left‑engine mounting spherical bearing race—known to have failed at least four times previously and discussed in a 2011 Boeing service letter that said it “would not result in a safety of flight condition”—may have contributed to the crash; Boeing issued a brief statement supporting the NTSB probe but did not address the report’s findings.

The Gateway Development Commission has formally notified contractors that funding for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project will expire on Feb. 6, requiring them to begin winding down active construction over the next two weeks. The mandated wind‑down will affect current work sites in New York, New Jersey and under the Hudson River unless the Trump administration restores the funding.

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened a formal investigation into Waymo’s autonomous robotaxis after a series of incidents in Austin, Texas, where the vehicles allegedly failed to stop for Austin Independent School District buses that were loading or unloading children with flashing lights and stop arms deployed. Investigators will travel to Austin to examine at least two dozen documented violations, including at least four that occurred after Waymo pushed a November software update it said would fix the problem. Waymo’s chief safety officer Mauricio Peña told CBS the company safely navigates "thousands of school bus encounters" weekly, says there have been no collisions in these incidents, and claims its performance around school buses is "superior to human drivers," even as the district previously asked the company to halt operations during school hours and says Waymo refused. The NTSB expects to release a preliminary report within 30 days, with a full probe likely taking 12 to 14 months, and the case comes on top of a separate NHTSA defect investigation into Waymo that was expanded last month in response to the same Austin bus encounters. The outcome could influence how federal regulators treat autonomous-vehicle deployments around vulnerable road users, particularly schoolchildren, as AV firms push to expand operations in U.S. cities.

More than 100 vehicles — including up to 40 tractor‑trailers — were involved in a pileup on I‑196 near Zeeland Township, Michigan, amid blizzard‑like whiteout conditions from an intense snow squall, resulting in multiple non‑life‑threatening injuries and an hours‑long closure for removal and cleanup as motorists and bystanders tried to help ambulances navigate the wreckage. The crash was part of a sprawling Arctic blast affecting roughly 200 million people with wind chills as low as −40 in parts of the North, widespread winter‑storm warnings across the Midwest and Northeast, and rare measurable snow or flurries reaching as far south as Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.