On Thursday, two commercial flights were ordered to approach the Ronald Reagan National Airport to make “roads” due to an army helicopter, three months after a collision in the air that killed 67 people, authorities said.
The Secretary of Transportation of the United States, Sean Duffy, said Friday that he would demand Pentagon responses about the Black Hawk helicopter flight that forced Delta Air Lines and Republic Airways’s airplanes to leave their landings.
“Unacceptable. Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are clear such as glass,” Duffy wrote in X, referring to the airport for his location identifier of the Federal Aviation Agency.
No one was injured in the incident, which occurred around 2:30 pm
The US army spokeswoman. UU. Captain Victoria Goldfedib said that UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was “performing flight operations in the Pentagon according to the FAA flight routes published and DCA air traffic control” when it was said by the Pentagon’s air traffic control.
Then they were told the two commercial flights that turn around instead of a land to ensure that there are no airspace conflicts, Goldfedib said.
“The incident is currently under investigation. The United States Army remains committed to the safety of aviation and performing flight operations within all approved guidelines and procedures,” he said.
The National Transportation Board and Federal Aviation Administration said they are investigating the incident.
The helicopter did not have passengers, but two pilots and a crew chief were on board, two US officials said. He was flying below 200 feet while rehearsing a joint emergency evacuation plan, two NBC officials said, practicing approaches as part of the return training operations.
Helicopters generally cannot fly more than 200 feet near Reagan, under the rules of FAA.
On January 29, an American Eagle commercial plane and a Black Hawk helicopter collided in the air on the Potomac River near the airport, killing the 64 people aboard the plane and the three people aboard the helicopter.
The accident raised questions about congested airspace around Ronald Reagan National Airport, which is located in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington.
In that case, researchers have evidence that the helicopter involved in the collision in the air was higher than the 200 -feet roof, NTSB president Jennifer Homendy said in February.
The NTSB has said that he wants to severely restrict helicopter traffic near the airport, arguing that there is an “intolerable risk for aviation security.”
