Cnn
–
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the aborted landings of two commercial flights which approached Reagan National Airport on Thursday while a Black Hawk helicopter of the American army approached the nearby Pentagon.
The helicopters near the airport are under a meticulous examination since the open -air collision of January 29 of the Flight 5342 of American Airlines and an army helicopter of the same unit. The accident killed 67 people.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is also investigating, said that air traffic controllers asked Delta 1671 and the flight 5825 of Republic “to carry out benchmarks at Reagan Washington National Airport due to a priority air transport helicopter at the Heliport of the Pentagon army” around 2:30 p.m.
In a statement, the American army spokesman, captain Victoria Goldfedib, said: “A Blackhawk UH-60 was led by the control of the Pentagon air traffic to carry out a` `restart ”, the surfmination of the Helipade du Pentagon in accordance with approved flight procedures.
Goldfedib added that the incident was investigated. “The American army remains attached to air security and the realization of theft operations in all approved directives and procedures,” she said.
Following the incident, the classification democrat who sits on the senatorial committee supervising the FAA called the agency and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth, “to give our airspace the attention of the security and the security it deserves.”
“It is scandalous that only three months after a Black Hawk helicopter of the army has tragically collided with a jet of passengers, the same army brigade again stole an helicopter too close to passenger planes on a final approach to DCA,” said Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. “It comes less than a week after this brigade has resumed thefts in the national capital region.”
Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said that he would continue legislation to “keep the public flying from army helicopter flights, which are dangerously close” to the airport.
“I believe it is time for the FAA to act quickly and to assert control of the national airspace so that the army stops leading air taxis for military officials near the national airport of Ronald Reagan Washington,” said Cruz in a position on X.
The closest proximity to the first plane, the flight of Delta 1671 to the helicopter was “0.89 miles and 400 feet”, according to the information that the FAA shared with the Congress. The second flight, the Republic 5825, came from “0.4 miles and 200 feet” of the helicopter.
“It seems that the Blackhawk operation did not go directly to the pentagon heliport,” said a preliminary report of the FAA shared with members of the Congress. “Instead, this took a panoramic route around the Pentagon compared to the procedure directly from the west to the heliport.”
The FAA’s first report indicates that the helicopter was not in a restricted area set up by the agency in the days that followed the open -air collision of January 29.
The Black Hawk in question was part of the 12th Aviation Battalion of very Belvoir, Virginia, the same unit involved in the accident on the Potomac.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy at the recommendation of the NTSB, prohibited the circulation of helicopters on a four -thousand section on the Potomac river after the January Airlines flight accident and the army helicopter.
Duffy told CNN on Friday that the Pentagon may have to examine terrestrial transport more often, which, according to him, could be a safer option, rather than putting commercial flights in danger. Air traffic controllers have done the right thing by diverting theft, he added.
While the helicopter in Thursday’s incidents was not in the prohibited area, airport planes are arrested for the necessary helicopter flights – as when President Donald Trump leaves the White House on Marine – which led to flight delays and diversions.
“We are concerned about the important potential of a future outdoor collision,” said NTSB president Jennifer Homendy during a briefing in March.
The collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and the Army Black Hawk helicopter occurred on January 29 under a clear sky on some of the most frequented and most closely aerial spaces in the country.
The jet of passengers was a few moments to attract when it was struck on the right side near the military helicopter at an altitude of approximately 300 feet, the investigators said. The helicopter was on a training mission.
A preliminary analysis of the flight data and the vocal recorder aboard the Black Hawk indicated that its altimeter was perhaps inaccurate and that the pilots may not have heard some calls from the Reagan national airport control tower, NTSB officials said last month.
Investigators discovered 15,214 “nearby events” between 2021 and 2024 on a national scale where planes were less than a collision sea mile, with a vertical separation of less than 400 feet. In addition, there were also 85 cases where two planes were separated by less than 1,500 feet, with a vertical separation of less than 200 feet, according to the NTSB.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Alexandra Skores of CNN, Aaron Cooper, Ray Sanchez and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.
