Communication Malfunction At Reagan Airport Hindered Flights: Report

ARLINGTON, VA — A "hotline" used by controllers to coordinate air traffic between the Pentagon and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has not worked in more than three years, according to a report citing testimony given at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration revealed the discovery and said they were not aware of the malfunction until May 1, when a helicopter circling the Pentagon caused two commercial flights to abort landings at Reagan, CNN reported.

Air traffic controllers ordered Delta flight 1671 and Republic flight 5825 to go around Reagan National Airport because a helicopter was inbound to the Pentagon Army Heliport on May 1, CNN said.

Once the encounter was revealed, several U.S. senators chided the Pentagon for not giving Reagan Airport flights more space in the busy air corridor.

Sen. Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a post on X. he would pursue legislation to push “the FAA to act swiftly and assert control over the national airspace, so the Army stops running air taxis for military officials near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.”

The incident was one in a series of near-misses since the Jan. 29 mid-air collision involving a Black Hawk Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight. The crash killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft, making it the deadliest U.S. airline crash in more than a decade.

Franklin McIntosh, the FAA’s deputy chief operating officer, testified Wednesday that the hotline is maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense and used by air traffic controllers to coordinate flights.

The FAA suspended military flights to the Pentagon since the May 1 incident and will not resume until the hotline is fixed, according to CNN.

The report published by The New York Times earlier this month detailed a series of failures leading up to January's deadly collision. The plane was about to land at Reagan Airport when the crash occurred.

According to the Times, radio communication broke down leading up to the crash. The helicopter crew did not execute visual separation effectively, and seconds before the collision, the instructor on the Black Hawk helicopter pilot ignored her instructor's command to turn left and navigate toward the east bank of the Potomac River to create more space between the two aircraft.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board previously said the helicopter may have missed a key instruction from the air traffic controller in the moments before the fiery collision.

Two months later, a Delta passenger plane and Air Force jet narrowly avoided a potential crash near the site of January's deadly collision.

Officials said Delta flight 2983 was cleared for takeoff from Reagan Airport at 3:15 p.m. on March 28, the same time four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talons were inbound to Arlington National Cemetery for a flyover.

The Delta plane received an onboard alert that another aircraft was nearby, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said, and air traffic controllers issued corrective instructions to both aircraft.

While the two aircraft avoided a collision, sources familiar with the incident said a communications breakdown appeared to occur when air traffic controllers in the Reagan Airport control tower failed to hold departing flights for five minutes leading up to the planned flyover.

A short pause in departures from the airport is standard protocol for flyovers, but for some reason, that did not happen, the sources told CNN.

See Also:

• Possible Cause Of Near-Collision At Reagan Airport Revealed: Report
• Delta Flight, Air Force Jet Avoid Possible Collision Near DCA
• Helicopters Permanently Restricted Near Reagan Airport After Crash

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