The Federal Aviation Administration has begun an investigation after two Delta Air Lines flights had to abort their landings Thursday afternoon at Reagan National Airport.
A military helicopter was closer than air traffic controllers liked and waved the two passenger planes off their landings. The incidents come more than three-months after an American Airlines flight inbound to Reagan National Airport was struck as it flew over the Potomac River by an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing 67 people on board both aircraft.
The FAA said air traffic control instructed Delta Air Lines Flight 1671, an Airbus A319 that departed from Orlando, and Republic Airways Flight 5825, an Embraer 170 that was inbound from Boston, to perform go-arounds at around 2:30 p.m. due to a priority military air transport helicopter in the vicinity.
Following the Jan. 29 midair crash at DCA, the FAA imposed permanent restrictions on nonessential helicopter operations around Reagan National Airport.
The Pentagon did not immediately comment on the aborted landings.
Atlanta-based Delta issued a statement Friday that said, “nothing is more important at Delta than the safety of our customers and people. We’ll cooperate with the FAA as they investigate.”
ABC News aviation safety analyst and longtime airline pilot John Nance said flying commercial jets and military helicopters into and out around D.C. and Northern Virginia near Reagan National is just too dangerous.
“If you’ve got planes on approach, or departing from Washington Reagan, I don’t see any reason for helicopters to be in the air or at least hovering and waiting,” Nance said, indicating he supports tougher restrictions around the airport for helicopters.
“These routes need to be redrawn, they need to be nowhere near Reagan airport, when it is operating. The choppers should be on the ground, waiting for the air traffic that comes in and out of DCA. It is a commercial airport,” he said.
Nance said that because of the complex airspace around Reagan National, the numerous prohibited and restricted areas around the airport and its short runways, the airport is one of the most difficult in the country for pilots to fly in and out of.
Nance said DCA is a safe airport, but one where pilots must bring their “A game” every flight. He praised the FAA and NTSB for putting in place tougher restrictions for helicopters, but he said as the NTSB continues its investigation into the January midair collision, the two aviation agencies need to look at moving helicopters further from the airport.
“Apparently, not all of the lessons have been learned, especially in terms of public perception,” he said. “I think what we are dealing with is a failure of the right hand the left hand to fully articulate where we are. The air traffic control folks are doing the best they can. The Pentagon are doing what they can under their requirements, but the public perception is that they are not communicating.”
The NTSB’s final report on the cause of the Jan. 29 midair near Reagan National is due out in about a year.
The FAA is also investigating another incident near DCA in March. Then, there was an apparent communications breakdown that led to a formation of military jets coming within seconds of colliding with a Delta Air Lines flight near the airport.
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