Hotline Outage Spurs Call for Helicopter Ban

A hotline connecting the Pentagon and air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport has been inoperable since March 2022, only discovered after a May 1 incident forced two commercial flights to abort landings when an Army helicopter circled the Pentagon. The FAA was unaware of the outage until the near-miss, despite the hotline's role in coordinating military and civilian aircraft in Washington, D.C.'s busy airspace. This issue follows a January midair collision at Reagan Airport between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people. Although controllers could still reach the Pentagon via regular landlines, the dedicated hotline's failure has led to the suspension of military flights near the airport until repairs are made. Lawmakers and FAA officials have underscored the urgent need to restore the hotline, and there are now calls for stricter controls and a permanent ban on certain helicopter operations in the area. The incidents have highlighted serious communication failures and renewed demands for improved safety protocols between civilian and military aviation authorities.