Hotline Between Military and Air Traffic Controllers in Washington Hasn't Worked for over 3 Years
Associated Press | By Josh Funk
Published May 14, 2025 at 3:17pm ET
A hotline between military and civilian air traffic controllers in Washington, D.C., that hasn't worked for more than three years may have contributed to another near miss shortly after the U.S. Army resumed flying helicopters in the area for the first time since January's deadly midair collision between a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, Sen. Ted Cruz said at a hearing Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration official in charge of air traffic controllers, Frank McIntosh, confirmed the agency didn't even know the hotline hadn't been working since March 2022 until after the latest near miss. He said civilian controllers still have other means of communicating with their military counterparts through landlines. Still, the FAA insists the hotline be fixed before helicopter flights resume around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Defense department officials didn't immediately respond to questions Wednesday about the near miss earlier this month and the steps it is taking to ensure helicopter flights in the area are safe. The FAA didn't immediately answer follow-up questions after the hearing about how that hotline was supposed to be used.
“The developments at DCA (Reagan airport) in its airspace are extremely concerning,” Cruz said. “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.”
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/05/14/hotline-between-military-and-air-traffic-controllers-washington-hasnt-worked-over-3-years.html
