Federal transport security officials were investigating on Friday after two commercial flights aborted landing because the army helicopter had entered the airspace around the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where helicopter traffic has been bone collision in January.
Air traffic controllers instructed Delta Air Lines Flight 1671 and Flight 5825 of Republic Airways to abort their landings around 2:30 PM Doursday due to the presence of the helicopter, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which safely.
The helicopter was a black hawk that was heading to the nearby Pentagon, said the Security Board.
Both planes then landed safely, but the episode caused outrage among Washington officials.
“Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystalline,” said the Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy in a publication on social networks, using the airport code. He said he would talk to the Department of Defense about “why the hell our rules were ignored.”
The army said in a letter statement that the helicopter had been “led by the Pentagon air traffic control to carry out a” solution “, to exceed the Pentagon’s helipad according to the approved flight procedures”, while heading to the Pentagon.
“The incident is currently under investigation,” said the army. “The United States Army remains committed to the safety of aviation and performing flight operations within all approved guidelines and procedures.”
The FAA had restricted the traffic of non -seestres helicopters around the airport, which is only miles from the Capitol and the White House, after a collision in the air of January 29 between an American Airlines flight and the Black Hawk army helicopter killed 67 people.
Thursday’s episode also renewed Conerns by legislators, many of What are the airport.
Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who runs the Senate Committee that manages transportation, said the incident underlined the continuous risks raised by military flights near the airport and requested legislation to improve civil air security.
“A few days after military flights resumed in the region of the national capital, the Army puts the public traveling at risk,” Cruz said on social networks. “Thank God, there was a decisive response of air traffic controllers and pilots, or otherwise, these two nearby calls could have resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives.”
Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, the main democrat of the committee, criticized the proximity of the military flight to commercial traffic.
She called him as “more passing time” for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseeth and FAA “to give our airspace the safety and safety care it deserves.”
