Hotline between military and air traffic controllers in Washington hasn't worked for over 3 years

A hotline betwixt subject and civilian aerial postulation controllers successful Washington, D.C., that hasn't worked for much than 3 years whitethorn person contributed to another adjacent miss soon aft the Army resumed flying helicopters successful the country for the archetypal clip since January's deadly midair collision betwixt a rider pitchy and a Black Hawk helicopter. Sen. Ted Cruz said a proceeding Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration authoritative successful complaint of aerial postulation controllers, Frank McIntosh, confirmed that the bureau didn't adjacent cognize the hotline hadn't been moving since March 2022 until aft the latest adjacent miss. He said civilian controllers did inactive person different means of communicating with their subject counterparts done landlines, but the FAA is insisting the hotline beryllium fixed earlier chopper flights resume astir Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Defense section officials didn't instantly respond to questions Wednesday astir the adjacent miss earlier this period and the steps it is taking to guarantee chopper flights successful the country are safe. The FAA didn't instantly reply follow-up questions aft the proceeding astir however that hotline was expected to beryllium used.

“The developments astatine DCA (Reagan airport) successful its airspace are highly concerning,” Cruz said. “This committee remains laser focused connected monitoring a harmless instrumentality to operations astatine DCA and making definite each users successful the airspace are operating responsibly.”

The Army suspended each chopper flights astir Reagan airdrome aft the latest adjacent miss, but McIntosh said the FAA was adjacent to ordering the Army to halt flying due to the fact that of the information concerns earlier it did truthful voluntarily.

“We did person discussions if that was an enactment that we wanted to pursue,” McIntosh told the Senate Commerce Committee astatine the hearing.

January's clang betwixt an American Airlines pitchy and an Army chopper killed 67 radical — making it the deadliest level clang connected U.S. ungraded since 2001. The National Transportation Safety Board has said determination were an alarming 85 adjacent misses astir Reagan successful the 3 years earlier the clang that should person prompted action.

Since the crash, the FAA has tried to guarantee that subject helicopters ne'er stock the aforesaid airspace arsenic planes, but controllers had to bid 2 planes to abort their landings connected May 1 due to the fact that of an Army chopper circling adjacent the Pentagon.

In summation to that incident, a commercialized formation taking disconnected from Reagan airdrome had to take evasive action aft coming wrong a fewer 100 feet of 4 subject jets heading to a flyover astatine Arlington National Cemetery. McIntosh blamed that incidental connected a miscommunication betwixt FAA aerial postulation controllers astatine a determination installation and the operation astatine Reagan that helium said had been addressed.

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