Adds more details on event, background in paragraphs 3-10

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a three-day investigative hearing into the Jan. 29 collision of a Black Hawk helicopter with an American Airlines AAL.O passenger jet near Reagan Washington National Airport killing 67 people, the board's chair said Tuesday.

The previously unreported hearing will be held from July 30-Aug. 1 at the board's headquarters, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told Reuters. She said the hearing is critical to the board's safety investigation. "It's meant to get additional evidence in order to complete our investigation," she said.

The hearing will include numerous witnesses and is expected to release significant new details of the deadliest U.S. aviation crash in more than two decades.

The NTSB in March made urgent safety recommendations adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration to make permanent restrictions on helicopters near Reagan.

Separately, Homendy, Army Aviation Brigadier General Matthew Braman and Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau will appear at a closed-door roundtable meeting with a Senate Commerce subcommittee on aviation to answer questions from senators Wednesday about a May 1 incident in which two passenger airline flights were forced to abort landings at Reagan because of a nearby Army helicopter.

Last week, a group of seven Democratic senators introduced sweeping air safety legislation after the fatal collision.

On Monday, two dozen U.S. senators asked the inspector generals for the Pentagon and Transportation Department to open audits in response to the collision and ongoing coordination issues between the Army and air traffic control at Reagan.

The FAA separately disclosed last month a hotline connecting the Pentagon and air traffic controllers at Reagan has been inoperable since March 2022.

(Reporting by David Shepardson)

((David.Shepardson@thomsonreuters.com; 2028988324;))