The Army has paused all helicopter training flights around the Pentagon near Washington after disruptions to two commercial flights last Thursday.
An Army representative confirmed to Fox News on Monday that there’s a temporary halt in place while an investigation is conducted. This follows last week’s incident at Reagan National Airport (DCA), where two flights were redirected after a Pentagon tower instructed an Army helicopter on a training flight to orbit the Pentagon one more time before landing.
Officials revealed that around 2:30 p.m. that day, air traffic control directed a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and a Republic Airways Embraer E170 to execute “go-arounds” at DCA due to the approach of an Army Black Hawk helicopter to the Pentagon Army Heliport, as per statements from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The FAA said the Black Hawk was a priority air transport helicopter.
The FAA says it is working to update technology after the DCA crash that claimed 67 lives. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Thursday’s disruptions come less than one month after the FAA increased staffing and oversight for the DCA air traffic control team.
Earlier in March, the FAA declared that it would permanently limit “nonessential” helicopter activities around the airport and discontinue the mixing of helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft traffic.
The agency also prohibited the simultaneous use of runways 15/33 and 4/22 when helicopters that are conducting urgent missions are operating near DCA.
It is unclear how the incident took place, given the new guidelines.
The airport’s main runway is the busiest runway in America, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Landon Mion, Grady Trimble and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
