Narrative:

We were cleared to circle to and land on runway 33. ATC also added that there was a low level helicopter and that the helicopter had us in sight. At the wilson bridge we turned to the northeast to set ourselves up for a landing on runway 33. We continued normally and started our turn to final.when I saw an opposite direction helicopter very close to our altitude; but slightly below us and climbing. I was about to initiate the go around regardless of the TCAS when we got the RA. As we started the go around I saw the helicopter make an aggressive descent. We were given a turn to the east and a climb to 2;000 feet which we complied with. After that; we cleaned up the plane; setup for another approach; and landed on runway 1 without incident. Once we cleared the runway; ground control asked me if I wanted to call the dca tower supervisor for an explanation of what happened. I gladly accepted. The tower supervisor I spoke with told me a few things that explained what may have happened. Number one; he said that the helicopters operating in that area should never be above 200 feet. According to him; the helicopter was at 800 feet; clearly not where he was supposed to be. He also explained that ATC may have taken their eyes off the helicopter for a second because they would never expect those helicopters to do something that egregious. That seems plausible given the fact that I've never seen a helicopter in that area at that altitude. He suggested that it was most probably a deviation on the part of the pilot of the helicopter; and a loss of aircraft separation that was also the fault of the helicopter pilot. Helicopter pilots in and around dca should adhere to ATC instructions.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ-175 Captain reported an airborne conflict with a helicopter on approach to DCA.

Narrative: We were cleared to circle to and land on runway 33. ATC also added that there was a low level helicopter and that the helicopter had us in sight. At the Wilson bridge we turned to the northeast to set ourselves up for a landing on runway 33. We continued normally and started our turn to final.when I saw an opposite direction helicopter very close to our altitude; but slightly below us and climbing. I was about to initiate the go around regardless of the TCAS when we got the RA. As we started the go around I saw the helicopter make an aggressive descent. We were given a turn to the east and a climb to 2;000 feet which we complied with. After that; we cleaned up the plane; setup for another approach; and landed on runway 1 without incident. Once we cleared the runway; ground control asked me if I wanted to call the DCA tower supervisor for an explanation of what happened. I gladly accepted. The tower supervisor I spoke with told me a few things that explained what may have happened. Number one; he said that the helicopters operating in that area should NEVER be above 200 feet. According to him; the helicopter was at 800 feet; clearly not where he was supposed to be. He also explained that ATC may have taken their eyes off the helicopter for a second because they would never expect those helicopters to do something that egregious. That seems plausible given the fact that I've never seen a helicopter in that area at that altitude. He suggested that it was most probably a deviation on the part of the Pilot of the helicopter; and a loss of aircraft separation that was also the fault of the helicopter pilot. Helicopter pilots in and around DCA should adhere to ATC instructions.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.