Broken Pentagon-Air Traffic Controller Hotline Raises Safety Concerns at Reagan National Airport
A hotline meant to connect the Pentagon with air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., has been broken for three years.
The Federal Aviation Administration was unaware of the busted connection until earlier this month, FAA official Frank McIntosh testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
The lack of a working hotline may have contributed a near-miss on May 1, when two aircraft arriving at Reagan were forced to circle around and wait for an Army helicopter to clear the area. It was only after that incident that the FAA learned of the hotline outage, McIntosh said.
That close call came shortly after the Army resumed helicopter flights around Reagan, which were suspended following the midair collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people in January.
“The developments at DCA ( Reagan Airport) in its airspace are extremely concerning,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R- Texas), who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which heard McIntosh’s testimony. “This committee remains laser-focused on monitoring a safe return to operations at DCA and making sure all users in the airspace are operating responsibly.”
Military flights near Reagan Airport were suspended again following the May 1 incident. McIntosh said Wednesday they would not be resumed until the hotline was fixed.
In addition to the deadly Jan. 29 collision — the worst airplane crash on U.S. soil since November 2001 — and the May 1 aborted landings, Reagan Airport was also the site of a near collision between a departing Delta flight and four arriving Air Force aircraft on March 28.
“Was there an actual aircraft about 500 feet below us as we came off of DCA?” the Delta pilot asked. Air traffic controllers confirmed the close call.
With News Wire Services
©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
