Pentagon Loses Connection with Army Helicopter for 20 Seconds, Resulting in Several Aborted Landings at Nearby D.C. Airport

A U.S. Army helicopter lost contact with the Pentagon for 20 seconds on May 1, per a new report by the Associated Press published Friday, May 23.

The loss of contact resulted in two commercial jets abruptly aborting landings to prevent a potential collision, the outlet reports. The incident comes months after the deadly collision between a Blackhawk helicopter and a commercial jet that killed 67 people near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Following the May 1 incident, the Army has paused all flight activity in the area surrounding Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. PEOPLE reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

In March, the FAA indefinitely shut down the helicopter route on which the Black Hawk from the January collision had been traveling in the vicinity of Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, the head of Army aviation, explained that the controllers lost contact with the Black Hawk because a temporary control tower antenna was not set up in a location where it would be able to maintain contact with the helicopter as it flew. He said the antenna was set up during construction of a new control tower and has now been moved to the roof of the Pentagon, per an exclusive interview with the AP.

Former FAA and NTSB crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti additionally confirmed to the outlet that he believes the two commercial aircrafts that aborted landing on May 1 made the right move.

“The Army, to me, seems to be attempting to sidestep some of their responsibility here. And it just sounds like excuses to say ‘Hey, we had our ADS-B on and that should have been enough for them to see where we were.’ That sounds too simplistic to me,” Guzzetti told the AP.

In the initial reporting on the aborted landings, an FAA official suggested the Army helicopter was taking a “scenic route.”

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However, the ADS-B-Out data, which the Army shared with the AP on Friday, depicts that the crew hewed closely to its approved flight path — directly up the I-395 highway corridor – then rounding the Pentagon.

FAA air traffic controllers at the airport aborted the landing of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 during the Black Hawk’s initial flight toward the Pentagon because they realized both aircrafts would be nearing the Pentagon at approximately the same time, the outlet reports.