A fatal crash between an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter in late January prompted leadership to change staffing protocols at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The collision, which killed 67 people and is one of the worst air crashes in recent U.S. history, rocked Washington, D.C., and resulted in concrete changes to how air traffic proceeds through the area.

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The National Transportation Safety Board considered irregular staffing on the night of the accident to be a factor, and since then, staffing rules at the airport have been tightened.

The Federal Aviation Administration will now have a stand-alone official more consistently monitoring only helicopter traffic in the area, a policy change that will require higher-level approval. Using a stand-alone controller for helicopter traffic has been in place for about a decade and allows air traffic control officials to focus solely on helicopter traffic rather than split their attention between planes and helicopters.

On the night of the Potomac plane crash, one air traffic controller was responsible for plane and helicopter traffic. The responsibilities were combined an hour earlier in a practice called an “early shove,” which is used when air traffic is light.

The practice was used during a near-miss of former Vice President Kamala Harris’s helicopter and an American Airlines plane mistakenly cleared for takeoff in 2021.

“Certainly, it’s an extra set of eyes, but for this one, we have to see: Would it have made a difference?” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said in an interview. “That’s something we will be looking at as part of our investigation.”

Retired pilot and aviation expert Richard Levy told Fox 5 that he approved of the change.

“The decision to separate helicopter traffic from the control of the take-off and landing at DCA is a good, safe decision, in my opinion,” Levy said. “I think that when there is any kind of heavy traffic, that’s basically common sense from early morning hours from 6 to 7 a.m. to about 10 p.m. local, you should have two controllers, one working helicopter traffic if there is any, and one controller of course working the take-off and landings.”

Other changes have been enacted at the airport, including a possible permanent flight ban for helicopters near DCA to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who represents the district that DCA is inside of, has suggested that helicopter flights should be distanced from the airport.

“Why do the training flights have to be that close to the airport? We know sadly they might one day have to get the president out of town, but let’s go train up the river or down the river when the planes are much higher,” Beyer said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy questioned the air traffic control practices at DCA around the time of the crash and said he’s focusing his efforts on making flying safer in the area.

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“How did they get the authority? And we’re going to pull back that authority to make sure that we have the right policies in place inside our towers to make sure that when you fly, you’re safe,” he said at a Feb. 5 event.

The NTSB is expected to issue a preliminary report on the accident this month.