BOSTON — The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating another close call at Reagan National Airport on Thursday involving a US Army Blackhawk.
Thursday in Washington, DC, a Delta flight from Orlando and a Republic Airways flight from Boston were ordered to go around. NTSB says a US Army Blackhawk was inbound to the Pentagon, near the runways for both planes.
Aviation experts told Boston 25 that go-arounds are common, but overly common at Reagan National.
“Very alarming,” said Tom Kinton, president of Kinton Aviation Consulting. “There are hundreds of these go-arounds over several years. That to me is a systemic problem! You got to shut it off and stop it. It’s not going to go away.”
The incident on Thursday comes roughly three months after 67 were killed when an American Airlines flight collided with a US Army Blackhawk. The victims included several members of the Boston Skating Club
Kinton learned that both planes on Thursday were within ¾ miles horizontally and 400 feet vertically of the helicopter.
All three, Kinton assured, were travelling over 100 miles per hour.
He added, “Those distances can close very quickly at those speeds. You don’t want to chance them getting any closer.”
Kinton told Boston 25 the NTSB and FAA ordered only essential military operations to be conducted at Reagan National while the airport is running.
He advised airport leadership that the two should no longer operate at the same time.
He finished, “Safety is everything, and when you have a rash of incidents like this, you take your time and you look at the causes and you put systems in place.
NTSB announced Friday that they’re actively investigating the incident.
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