Army pausing helicopter flights near Washington airport after close
calls
[May 06, 2025]
By TARA COPP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army is pausing helicopter flights near a
Washington airport after two commercial planes had to abort landings
last week because of an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was flying to
the Pentagon.
The commander of the 12th Aviation Battalion directed the unit to pause
helicopter flight operations around Ronald Reagan Washington National
Airport following Thursday’s close calls, two Army officials confirmed
to The Associated Press on Monday. One official said the flights have
been paused since Friday.
The pause comes after 67 people died in January when a passenger jet
collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan airport.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details
that were not publicly announced. The unit is continuing to fly in the
greater Washington, D.C., region.
The unit had begun a return to flight within the last week, with plans
to gradually increase the number of flights over the next four weeks,
according to an Army document viewed by the AP.
Thursday’s close call involved a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and a
Republic Airways Embraer E170, according to the National Transportation
Safety Board.
They were instructed by air traffic control to “perform go-arounds”
because of a “priority air transport” helicopter, according to an
emailed statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The priority air transport helicopters of the 12th battalion provide
transport service to top Pentagon officials. It was a Black Hawk
priority air transport known as PAT25 that collided with the passenger
jet in midair in January.
That crash was the worst U.S. midair disaster in more than two decades.
In March, the FAA announced that helicopters would be prohibited from
flying in the same airspace as planes near Reagan airport.
The NTSB and FAA are both investigating the latest close call with an
Army helicopter.
The Army said after the latest incident that the UH-60 Blackhawk was
following published FAA flight routes and air traffic control from
Reagan airport when it was “directed by Pentagon Air Traffic Control to
conduct a ‘go-around,’ overflying the Pentagon helipad in accordance
with approved flight procedures.”
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The air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National
Airport is seen at sunset, Feb. 1, 2025, in Arlington, Va.. (AP
Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)
But helicopter traffic remains a concern around that busy airport.
The FAA said that three flights that had been cleared for landing
Sunday at Reagan were ordered to go around because a police
helicopter was on an urgent mission in the area. All three flights
landed safely on their second approaches.
The NTSB said after the January crash that there had been an
alarming number of close calls near Reagan in recent years, and the
FAA should have acted sooner.
Investigators have highlighted 85 close calls around Reagan airport
in the three years before the crash that should have signaled a
growing safety problem. FAA officials said they did analyze every
close call but missed the alarming trend.
Since then, the FAA launched a review of data at airports nationwide
with heavy helicopter traffic that identified safety concerns at the
Las Vegas airport related to all the helicopter tours there. That
review is ongoing.
Reuters first reported the pause in Army helicopter flights.
In New Jersey on Monday, flight delays and cancellations persisted
at Newark Liberty International Airport. The FAA attributed arriving
flight delays of nearly four hours to a combination of an air
traffic controller shortage, thick cloud cover and antiquated air
traffic control equipment that needs to be upgraded.
___
Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from
Omaha, Nebraska.
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