Air traffic control 'hotline' between Pentagon and Reagan Washington National Airport has been broken since 2022

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Source: CNN via WTOP

Air traffic control ‘hotline’ between Pentagon and Reagan Washington National Airport has been broken since 2022

CNN
May 14, 2025, 11:59 AM


A US Army Blackhawk helicopter flies over The Pentagon on May 1.

(CNN) — A “hotline” between air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Pentagon, intended to coordinate aircraft, has not worked since March 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed in a congressional hearing Wednesday.

The FAA was not aware the direct line was broken until a May 1 incident where a helicopter circled the Pentagon and caused two flights to abort landings, Franklin McIntosh, the FAA’s deputy chief operating officer testified.

The airport was the site of the deadliest US airline crash in more than a decade when an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter on a training mission collided on January 29.

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Read more: https://wtop.com/arlington/2025/05/air-traffic-control-hotline-between-pentagon-and-reagan-washington-national-airport-has-been-broken-since-2022/