A commercial airliner had to abandon its landing at Reagan National Airport after a U.S. Army helicopter began to ascend above the Pentagon earlier this year, officials say.
The two aircraft experienced a “loss of separation” around 2:30 p.m. on May 1, coming less than half a mile from each other, according to a preliminary report that the National Transportation Safety Board released on Friday.
Once Reagan National Airport’s air traffic control tower saw the U.S. Army helicopter climb, a go-around maneuver was issued to the passenger airline — though “separation had already been lost,” the report said.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, “the closest proximity” between the two aircraft “was 0.4 miles laterally and 200 feet vertically.”
Video of the incident, captured by local public safety watcher Dave Statter, appeared to show the airliner rising above the helicopter, which was circling near the Pentagon.
NEW: Remember the May 1 arrival of a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter at the Pentagon that forced two planes landing at Reagan National to go-around? The NTSB preliminary report released today confirms a "loss of separation" between PAT 23 and Republic Airways flight 5825. It's the… https://t.co/FGPvPUjHGo pic.twitter.com/IFQI2kFW2Q
— Dave Statter (@STATter911) August 23, 2025
There was no known loss of communication between the U.S. Army helicopter and the Pentagon’s helipad, which is where the helicopter was attempting to land, the report said.
The Pentagon’s helipad, located on the northern side of the building, is approximately 1.3 miles away from the edge of Runway 19 at DCA, which is where the passenger jet was expected to land.
The helicopter involved in the incident, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, is the same model aircraft that was involved in January’s fatal collision with a commercial airplane above the Potomac River.
During that incident, the two aircraft crashed into each other where a DCA landing flight path and a helicopter flight path overlapped, according to federal officials.
A handful of other near-misses have occurred near the airport this year, including just days after the May 1 incident when a police helicopter responding to a vehicle collision flew into the airport’s airspace, resulting in the diversion of three flights.
