Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted an aviation incident near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport involving an Army helicopter, just months after a midair collision in the same area killed 67 people.
On Thursday, two passenger jets were forced to abort their landings at the airport because of an Army Black Hawk helicopter taking a "scenic route around the Pentagon."
Reagan National airport has been in the spotlight ever since the catastrophic crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional passenger jet killed 67 people in January and set off a wave of investigations.
According to the email written Friday by Chris Senn, FAA’s assistant administrator for government and industry affairs, obtained by POLITICO, the Army helicopter — also a Black Hawk — “took a scenic route around the Pentagon versus proceeding directly from the west to the heliport” on Thursday, prompting controllers to call for two go-arounds.
While go-arounds are a typical maneuver for flights inbound to Reagan National given the congestion at the busy airport, Senn classified the incidents in the email as “loss of separation” events, which are a breach of the minimum separation standards for aircraft in the same airspace.
Senn added the aircraft “were not within the restricted mixed traffic area” of the airport, but the FAA will investigate whether the Army was in violation of its flight approvals. [...]
In a statement, the FAA on Friday said a “priority transport” inbound for the Pentagon’s helipad made both a Delta Air Lines flight and a Republic Airways flight perform go-arounds. [...]
Both flights were on final approach. The closest proximity between the Delta plane and helicopter was less than a mile and 400 feet. As the Black Hawk continued flying, the proximity between the Republic flight and the helicopter then grew closer — roughly 0.4 miles and 200 feet apart, according to the email.
Separately, there was another underlying issue: Controllers didn’t see the Black Hawk’s tracking position in real-time on their radar screens. Senn said the helicopter’s radar track “inadvertently floated and jumped to a different location on the controller feed after being unresponsive for a couple seconds.” The jump happened when the Republic flight was 1.7 miles away from the runway.(Politico)
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"Unacceptable," Duffy said, sharing the article. "Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystal clear. In addition to investigations from @NTSB and @FAANews, I’ll be talking to the @DeptofDefense to ask why the hell our rules were disregarded.
"Safety must ALWAYS come first," he added. "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."
Unacceptable. Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystal clear. In addition to investigations from @NTSB and @FAANews, I’ll be talking to the @DeptofDefense to ask why the hell our rules were disregarded.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 2, 2025
Safety must ALWAYS come first. We just lost 67 souls! No more… https://t.co/7ijmc8MW8v
Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, ranking member of the Commerce Committee, said it's "outrageous" that this occurred.
“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, reports Politico.
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