By Idrees Ali, David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Army is pausing helicopter training flights in the vicinity of the Pentagon pending a review into two passenger airline flights that were forced to abort landings at Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday because a Black Hawk helicopter was flying nearby.
The Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion has temporarily halted training flights in and around the Pentagon while it determines what happened during Thursday’s flight, a U.S. official told Reuters on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The battalion is the Army unit responsible for such flights.
The unit in recent days had begun gradually resuming flights after the January 29 mid-air collision of an Army Black Hawk from the battalion that was on a nighttime training mission and an American Airlines regional jet near the airport killed 67 people. Reagan National is located in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington and near the Pentagon.
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that air traffic control instructed Delta Air Lines Flight 1671, an Airbus A319 that had originated in Orlando, and Republic Airways Flight 5825, an Embraer 170 that had flown from Boston, to perform a “go-around” at about 2:30 p.m. due to a Black Hawk headed to the Pentagon. This is a crucial safety procedure in which an arriving aircraft aborts its landing and circles to get back in line to land.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have said they are investigating the incident.
Last week, the military said the Black Hawk had initiated a go-around after Pentagon Air Traffic Control told the pilots of the aircraft they were not cleared to land, which prompted Reagan National’s FAA Air Traffic Control to issue the go-around directive to the two passenger airplanes.
Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz said on Friday that “the Army is once again putting the traveling public at risk. … 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.”
After the fatal collision in January, the FAA imposed permanent restrictions on non-essential helicopter operations around the airport.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Friday that the Army disregarded helicopter safety rules.
“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,” Duffy said.
CBS News reported the pause on training flights earlier.
The FAA in March permanently closed one key route and prohibited the use of two smaller runways at the airport when helicopters conducting urgent missions are operating near the airport.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, David Shepardson and Phil Stewart; Editing by Will Dunham)
