- An Army Black Hawk helicopter caused two commercial flights to abort their landings in Washington, D.C., when its crew took “a scenic route around the Pentagon” on Thursday, May 1
- Air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport told the Delta and Republic flights to perform “go-arounds” because of the “priority air transport helicopter”
- U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the helicopter’s landing “unacceptable,” and added: “No more helicopter rides for VIPs or unnecessary training in a congested DCA airspace full of civilians”
An Army Black Hawk helicopter caused two commercial flights to abort their landings at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when its crew took “a scenic route.”
On Thursday, May 1, the Army helicopter “took a scenic route around the Pentagon versus proceeding directly from the west to the heliport,” according to an email obtained by Politico from Chris Senn, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) assistant administrator for government and industry affairs.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told PEOPLE in a statement that a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and Republic Airways Embraer E170 were both instructed by an air traffic controller to perform “go-arounds” at around 2:30 p.m. local time because of the inbound Army aircraft, a “Priority Air Transport helicopter.”
Senn said in his email that the Army crew violated safety standards and classified the incident as a “loss of separation” — meaning that the helicopter breached the minimum standard for how close together aircrafts in the same space can be.
The Army aircraft was “not within the restricted mixed traffic area” of the airport, Senn also noted, per Politico.
According to Senn’s email, both commercial flights were on final approach. At one point, the Black Hawk helicopter came within 0.4 miles and 200 feet from the Republic flight, and it came less than a mile and 400 feet from the Delta plane, per Politico.
Air traffic controllers also did not have real-time tracking information on the helicopter because its radar information “inadvertently floated and jumped to a different location on the controller feed after being unresponsive for a couple seconds” as the aircraft was more than a mile away from the Republic flight, per the email.
One supervisor, four controllers and one controller in training were working at the time of the incident, Senn added.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later spoke out about the incident in a post on X, calling the helicopter’s landing “unacceptable.”
“Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystal clear,” Duffy wrote. “Safety must ALWAYS come first. We just lost 67 souls! No more helicopter rides for VIPs or unnecessary training in a congested DCA airspace full of civilians.”
“I’ll be talking to the @DeptofDefense to ask why the hell our rules were disregarded,” he added.
Army spokesperson Capt. Victoria Goldfedib told the Associated Press that the Black Hawk was following FAA flight routes and air traffic control from the airport when it was “directed by Pentagon Air Traffic Control to conduct a ‘go-around,’ overflying the Pentagon helipad in accordance with approved flight procedures.”
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This week’s incident comes just three months after 67 people were killed in a mid-air collision at the same airport on Jan. 29. An American Airlines regional jet and a Blackhawk Army helicopter collided, killing everyone onboard both aircrafts.
Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, who serves on the Commerce Committee, called the May 1 incident “outrageous.”
“It is outrageous that only three months after an Army Black Hawk helicopter tragically collided with a passenger jet, the same Army brigade again flew a helicopter too close to passenger jets on final approach” at the airport, she said in a statement to Politico, adding that the Pentagon and the FAA should “give our airspace the security and safety attention it deserves.”
Both the FAA and NTSB are investigating the incident, the FAA told PEOPLE. The NTSB is set to lead the investigation.
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