Army Black Hawk helicopter causes 2 terrifying near-misses with airliners at Reagan airport after taking the scenic route

An Army Black Hawk helicopter caused two near-misses with airliners at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last week — including passing as little as 200 feet from one jet — after the pilot took “the scenic route” to the Pentagon, according to authorities.The terrifying incident at one of America’s most crowded airports comes three months after the same kind of Army chopper from the same unit was involved in a mid-air collision with an American Airlines jet, killing 67 people.

Officials and politicians were quick to blast the Army for the incident — with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy calling it “unacceptable.” On Thursday, the commercial planes — Delta Flight 1671 and Republic Flight 5825 — were rerouted just moments before they were due to land at Reagan due to the proximity of the helicopter, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.Both flights were on their final approach less than two miles from the runway at around 2:30 p.m, authorities said.The Black Hawk “took a scenic route around the Pentagon versus proceeding directly from the west to the heliport,” the FAA’s assistant administrator for government and industry affairs Chris Senn wrote in an email on Friday, Politico reported.At one point, the helicopter got between 200 and 2,100 feet from the Republic flight, and between 400 to 2,600 feet the Delta plane, Senn wrote.“It is outrageous that only three months after an Army Black Hawk helicopter tragically collided with a passenger jet, the same Army brigade again flew a helicopter too close to passenger jets on final approach,” Sen.Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) told Politico.She called on the Pentagon and the FAA “to give our airspace the security and safety attention it deserves.”During Thursday’s close-call FAA controllers told the two commercial flights to make “go-arounds” as they approached Reagan National Airport — that is, break off their landings, circle back and try again.The troub...