A Delta Air Strains flight approaches Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport in Arlington, Va., on July 2, 2022. On Thursday, two industrial jetliners needed to abort landings this week on the airport due to an Military Black Hawk helicopter.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Stefani Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Photos
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says it is “unacceptable” that two industrial jetliners needed to abort landings this week at Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport due to an Military Black Hawk helicopter.
The incident Thursday afternoon occurred three months after 67 folks have been killed in a mid-air collision close to the airport between a Black Hawk and a passenger jet.
In an electronic mail reported by Politico, Chris Senn, Federal Aviation Administration assistant administrator for presidency and trade affairs, mentioned the Military helicopter “took a scenic route across the Pentagon versus continuing straight from the west to the heliport.”
Senn mentioned the helicopter violated security requirements and required air site visitors controllers to order two industrial jetliners to carry out “go-around maneuvers,” aborting their landings and returning on one other method.
Restrictions have been positioned on helicopter flights close to the airport after a Jan. 29 mid-air collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airways regional jet that was attempting to land at DCA. It was the deadliest aviation accident within the U.S. since 2001.
“Unacceptable. Our helicopter restrictions round DCA are crystal clear,” Duffy said in a post on the social platform X. “Security should ALWAYS come first. We simply misplaced 67 souls! No extra helicopter rides for VIPs or pointless coaching in a congested DCA airspace stuffed with civilians.”
The FAA mentioned the incident, which occurred round 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, concerned a Delta Air Strains flight and a Republic Airways flight. The FAA and the Nationwide Transportation Security Board are each finishing up investigations.
Duffy mentioned he’ll even be speaking to officers on the Protection Division about “why the hell our guidelines have been disregarded.”
In March, following the discharge of a preliminary investigation report into the January crash, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy described the flight patterns round DCA as “an intolerable risk” as helicopters and industrial planes function shut to one another within the busy airspace over Washington.
An NTSB evaluation discovered that from 2011 to 2024, there was at the least one “shut name” every month between a industrial aircraft working on the airport and a helicopter, she mentioned.
Duffy completely restricted non-essential helicopter operations round DCA.
In late March, a close call between a Delta aircraft and an Air Pressure jet exterior Washington triggered a collision warning and “corrective directions” from air site visitors controllers.
