The FAA told Congress it is reviewing the Army helicopter’s route in the ‘loss of separation’ incident to determine if it violated an agreement.
The Army has suspended helicopter flights into and around the Pentagon after an incident last week involving a military helicopter flying close to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) that resulted in air traffic control aborting the landings of two commercial flights.
The May 5 suspension, which will affect helicopter operations out of the 12th Aviation Battalion, was confirmed to The Epoch Times by a Department of Defense official on Monday.
That battalion is tasked with evacuating top political officials in cases of emergency.
In late January, one of its Black Hawk helicopters was involved in the fatal midair collision with a commercial jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.
The incident that prompted the helicopter suspension occurred on May 1, when a Delta Air Lines flight and a Republic Airways Flight were both instructed by air traffic controllers to abort their landings and perform go-arounds at roughly 2:30 p.m. (ET) because of a military air transport helicopter operating nearby.
In a statement sent to NTD News, sister media of The Epoch Times, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the incident and said it and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took to social media on May 2 to sharply rebuke the Pentagon for the incident.
“Unacceptable,” Duffy wrote in a post on social media platform X.
“Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystal clear. I’ll be talking to the Department of Defense to ask why the [expletive] our rules were disregarded.”
Duffy, referring to January’s deadly midair collision near Reagan national airport, warned that safety protocols need to be enforced without exception.
“Safety must ALWAYS come first,” he wrote. “We just lost 67 souls! No more helicopter rides for VIPs or unnecessary training in a congested DCA airspace full of civilians. Take a taxi or Uber—besides, most VIPs have black car service.”
The incident also prompted bipartisan condemnation among lawmakers who are investigating the January midair collision, among other close calls at what is one of the nation’s busiest airports.
By Jacob Burg
