Vital Hotline Between Pentagon and Airport Staff Down for Years Without Anyone Noticing
The issue only became apparent when controllers had to tell two airliners to abort landings because of a circling helicopter.
A vital hotline that connected air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport to Pentagon officials had been down for three years without anyone noticing, a Federal Aviation Administration official has admitted.
Franklin McIntosh, deputy chief operating officer of the FAA, testified at a Senate hearing Wednesday, saying that the link has been “inoperable” since March 2022.
The Pentagon-maintained line had been down for that extended period without the FAA even knowing, he revealed, in an answer to Senate Commerce Committee chair, Ted Cruz.
“I think the next question would be why were we not aware of it and insist upon it being fixed and I didn’t have that written down, but it’s a good one,” he said.
FAA officials only became aware of the issue on May 5 when air traffic controllers at the airport in Arlington, Virginia, had to order two airliners to reroute because of an Army helicopter headed for the Pentagon. That was five months after a January incident where an Army Black Hawk flew into the path of a regional jet about to land at Reagan National, which resulted in the worst loss of life in American airspace since 2001.
In May, the Senate hearing found another Army Black Hawk helicopter took a “scenic route” around the flight path before touching down on an Army heliport. The National Transportation Safety Board pledged to launch a probe.
The Coast Guard investigates aircraft wreckage on the Potomac River on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Handout/Getty Images
The incident led officials to float the idea of suspending an agreement that allows the military to fly in the busy airspace near Reagan without prior authorization from the FAA.
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The authority didn’t have to pull the trigger because the Army aviation unit in Virginia suspended Pentagon-bound flights until a full review is carried out.
“We’re insisting on that line to be fixed before we resume any operations out of the Pentagon,” McIntosh told the Senate Commerce Committee.
In its absence, air traffic controllers had relied on landlines.
Sean Duffy has sought to add more air traffic controllers to the workforce, announcing new incentives and raising the retirement age.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
It also comes amid a swathe of comms dips at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The latest glitch on Sunday morning follows a 90-second radar blackout last Friday, and a radar and radio meltdown on April 28 that forced five air-traffic controllers to take trauma leave, and led to more than 1,000 flight cancellations.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the lapses on old technology and poor congressional oversight, claiming “Congress and the country haven’t paid attention to it.”
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