Military air traffic controllers lost contact with an Army Black Hawk helicopter for about 20 seconds as it approached the Pentagon on May 1, which resulted in two commercial jets aborting their landings at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, a top Army official has said.
Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, head of Army aviation, said the loss of contact occurred because a temporary control tower antenna was not positioned to maintain communication with the helicopter as it flew low and rounded the Pentagon to land. He said the antenna had been set up during construction of a new control tower and has since been moved to the Pentagon’s roof to prevent a recurrence.
Braman also said that federal air traffic controllers inside the airport did not have a good fix on the helicopter’s location. Although the Black Hawk was transmitting data that should have given controllers its precise position, Braman said FAA officials told him that the data from multiple feeds and sensors was inconclusive, with some of it deviating by as much as three-quarters of a mile.
“It certainly led to confusion of air traffic control of where they were,” Braman said.
A spokesperson for the FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NTD News, sister media of The Epoch Times, confirming whether controllers were able to accurately locate the helicopter’s location at that time.
According to Braman, FAA air traffic controllers at the airport aborted the landing of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 during the Black Hawk’s initial approach because both aircraft would have been near the Pentagon at the same time.
Due to the 20-second loss of contact, the Pentagon’s tower did not clear the Black Hawk to land, forcing the helicopter to circle the Pentagon a second time. During this second approach, controllers at the airport decided to abort the landing of a second jet, a Republic Airways Embraer E170, because they still did not have a confident fix on the Black Hawk’s location, according to Braman.
Helicopter Flights Suspended
Following the incident, the Army on May 5 suspended all helicopter flights into and out of the Pentagon as it works with the FAA to address safety issues.The suspension affects the 12th Aviation Battalion, which is responsible for evacuating top political officials in emergencies, a Department of Defense official confirmed to The Epoch Times.
The FAA confirmed the incident and said it and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.
At the time of the incident, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized the Pentagon on social media.
“Safety must ALWAYS come first. 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.”
“I believe it’s time for 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,” Cruz said.
In a statement regarding the same incident, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member on the Commerce Committee, said, “It is far past time for [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth and the FAA to give our airspace the security and safety attention it deserves.”
In March, the FAA permanently closed one key route and banned the use of two smaller runways at the airport whenever helicopters conduct urgent missions or operate nearby.
