WASHINGTON, D.C. — Military air traffic controllers briefly lost contact with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter as it approached the Pentagon earlier this month—an incident that forced two commercial jets to abort their landings at nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The episode, which unfolded on May 1, has reignited concerns over aerial safety in the capital region following a deadly midair collision in January.
The Army confirmed the 20-second communication lapse to The Associated Press on Friday, saying the disruption stemmed from a temporary control tower antenna placement. Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, head of Army aviation, explained in an exclusive interview that the antenna had been installed in a suboptimal location due to ongoing construction and was unable to maintain line-of-sight communication as the helicopter descended at low altitude around the Pentagon.
The incident marks the latest in a troubling pattern of close calls involving military aircraft and commercial flights in the highly congested airspace surrounding Washington, D.C. Just months earlier, 67 people were killed in a catastrophic collision between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in March to permanently restrict helicopter access to the corridor where the crash occurred.
Following the May 1 close call, the Army temporarily suspended all flights in and out of the Pentagon to reassess safety procedures in collaboration with the FAA. During that incident, FAA controllers aborted the landing of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 after realizing it and the Black Hawk were converging near the Pentagon at the same time. A second commercial aircraft, a Republic Airways Embraer E170, was also ordered to abort landing when the helicopter circled back due to the lack of clearance.
“The Army helicopter was not cleared to land because of the momentary communication gap,” Braman explained. “This led to confusion, especially since FAA controllers couldn’t get a solid fix on the aircraft’s position.”
According to Braman, although the Black Hawk was broadcasting location data via its ADS-B Out system, FAA officials told him the signals were inconsistent. “Some of the sensor feeds deviated by as much as three-quarters of a mile,” he said, noting that air traffic controllers inside the airport had conflicting data that muddied their real-time awareness.
In early FAA briefings, officials reportedly questioned whether the helicopter was on a “scenic route,” suggesting it may have deviated from its flight plan. However, newly released ADS-B data provided by the Army shows the helicopter followed its approved path along the I-395 corridor, also known as Route 5, before circling the Pentagon.
The FAA has declined to comment on specific equipment failures, citing the ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Still, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is now calling for expedited modernization of the nation’s aging air traffic control infrastructure—technology that, critics argue, failed to support controllers in several recent near-disaster scenarios, including those in Newark and Washington.
The Pentagon’s control tower antenna has since been repositioned to the building’s roof to enhance visibility and communications with incoming military aircraft. The Army, meanwhile, continues to cooperate with the FAA to fine-tune protocols that balance national defense logistics with civilian aviation safety in one of the country’s most restricted and complex airspaces.
As the FAA faces mounting scrutiny, the May 1 incident serves as yet another urgent reminder: when split-second decisions in the sky go awry, the margin for error is perilously thin.
