Army Black Hawk Helicopter Causes 2 Almost Missing Aircraft On DC Airport

• An Army Black Hawk helicopter got two commercial flights to cancel their landings in Washington, DC, when its crew took “a scenic road around Pentagon” on Thursday 1 May
• Air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport told Delta and Republic flights to perform “go-around” due to “Priority Air Transport Helicopter”
• US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy called the helicopter’s landing “unacceptable” and added: “No more helicopter tours for VIPs or unnecessary training in an overloaded DCA air room full of civilian”

An army Black Hawk helicopter caused two commercial flights to cancel their landings at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when its crew took “a scenic path.”

Thursday, May 1, the Army helicopter “a scenic road around Pentagon versus continuing directly from west to the heli port”, according to an e -mail message obtained by Politician from Chris Senn, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) assistant administrator for government and industry issues.

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 control to carry out “Go-Around’s” around 14:30 local time due to the incoming aircraft.

Senn said in his e -post that the army’s crew violated security standards and classified the event as a “loss of separation” – which means that the helicopter broke the minimum standard for how close together aircraft in the same space can be.

The army aircraft was “not within the limited mixed traffic area” at the airport, also noted Senn, Per Politico.

According to the Lenn’s E -post, both commercial flights were in the end. At one point, the Black Hawk helicopter came within 0.4 miles and 200 meters from the Republic flight, and it came less than a mile and 400 feet from the Delta plane, Per Politico.

Air traffic control units also did not have real-time tracking information on the helicopter because its radar information “accidentally floated and jumped to another location on the controller flow after responding for a few seconds” because the aircraft was more than a mile away from Republic flight, by email.

A supervisor, four control units and a controller in education worked at the time of the incident, Senn added.

US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy later talked about the incident in A post At X, calls the helicopter landing “unacceptable.”

“Our helicopter restrictions on DCA are crystal clear,” Duffy wrote. “Safety must always come first. We only lost 67 souls! No more helicopter tours for VIPs or unnecessary training in an overloaded DCA air room full of civilians.”

“I’ll talk to @Deptofdefense to ask why the hell our rules are ignored,” he added.

Army spokesman Capt. Victoria Goldfedib told Associated Press The fact that Black Hawk followed FAA airways and air traffic control from the airport when it was “led by Pentagon Air Traffic Control to carry out a” go-around “, abundant Pentagon Helipade in accordance with approved flight procedures.”

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This week’s incident comes just three months after 67 people were killed in one the middle of the air At the same airport on January 29. An American Airlines Regional Jet and a Blackhawk Army helicopter collided and killed everyone aboard both aircraft.

Then Maria Cantwell in the Washington State, who serves in the Trade Committee, called on May 1 -incident “outrage.”

“It is scandalous that just three months after an army Black Hawk -Helicopter tragically collided with a passenger beam, the same army brigade again flew a helicopter for close passage rays on the final approach” at the airport, she said in a statement to Politico, “giving the pentagon

Both FAA and NTSB investigate the incident, FAA told People. NTSB will lead the investigation.