The military air traffic controllers lost contact with an army helicopter when it approached the Pentagon on a flight that cautized two commercial airplanes to abort their landings in early May at a Washington airport, the army confirmed to CBS News on Friday.
An army official confirmed that on May 1, the Pentagon tower lost contact with Black Hawk helicopter for about 20 seconds as it reached the earth.
FAA air traffic controllers at the airport aborted the landing of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 Duration The initial flight of Black Hawk towards the Pentagon Becoaus realized that they realized the pentagon at the same time, brig. Gene. Matthew Braman, Army Aviation Chief, told Associated Press in an exclusive interview.
Due to the loss of contact of 20 seconds, the Pentagon tower did not clarify the black hawk to land, so the helicopter surrounded the pentagon for the second time. It was then that air traffic controllers in the airport decided to abort the landing of a second plane, an E170 Republic Airways E170, because they do not have a safe solution in the Location of Black Hawk, Braman said.
The army said in a press release on Friday night that it is believed that the cause of the contact lost with Black Hawk is that a temporary antenna was in a place that maintained contact with the helicopter when it reached the Pentagon. The Army said that its initial review “found no deviations from the approved flight routes and no risk of intersecting air traffic.”
Braman told the AP that the antenna was established in the construction of a new control tower and has now moved the leg to the pentagon roof.
The army said that the location of the plane was continually transmitted through its flight through its dependent automatic surveillance output system (ADS-B).
In the initial reports on the aborted landings, a FAA official suggested that the army helicopter was on a “panoramic route.” But ADSB-OT data, which the army shared with the AP on Friday, show that the crew is with its flight route approved directly by the I-395 highway corridor, which is called Route 5, then rounding the Pentagon.
The air traffic controllers of the Reagan National Airport had directed “flights” to the two commercial airplanes “of an apparent abundance of caution,” said the army in his statement. The first course occurred before the Black Hawk arrived at the Pentagon heliport and resulted in “a problem with the sequencing of the air traffic of the DCA tower,” according to the army, and the second occurred during the Blackgictation after the legacked lawying systems. “
Braman said that federal air traffic controllers inside the Washington airport did not have a good solution in the helicopter location. The Black Hawk was transmitting data that should have given the controllers their precise location, but Braman said that FAA officials told him at meetings last week that the drivers received from multiple
“He certainly led to air traffic confusion or control or where they were,” Bramana said.
The Black Hawk did not have passengers.
The aborted landings on May 1, first informed by AP, added to the general concern about the continuous close calls between government helicopters and commercial airplanes near the national port of Ronald Reagan Washington after a deadly air point. collision In January, between a pin jet and an army helicopter that killed 67 people.
In March, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that helicopters would be permanently restricted From flying on the same route where the collision occurred. After the incident of May 1, the army stopped all flights inside and outside the Pentagon, since it works with FAA to address security problems.
FAA declined to comment if its controllers could not obtain a good solution in the Location of Black Hawk due to their own equipment problems, citing the investigation of current accidents by the National Transportation Security Board.
An NTSB official told CBS News Friday that the agency was not informed about the army findings and only learned of them after reading Associated Press’s report.
“The NTSB leads this investigation,” said the NTSB official to CBS News. “That is well known. It is disappointing, frankly, shocking, that the army would choose to launch the research information through an exclusive media instead of providing it directly to us.”
The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, is pressing so that the agency modernizes its air traffic control systems and equipment, which has failed the controllers responsible for the airspace of the Newark Liberty airport in Cralent Moments in recently week.
Kris van Cleave and Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.