The hotline between the Department of Defense (DOD) and air traffic controllers at Reagan Washington National Airport has not worked for more than three years, according to a top Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official.
Franklin J. McIntosh, the FAA’s deputy chief operating officer, confirmed during a Senate hearing Wednesday on the agency’s modernization efforts that the hotline connecting the military and air traffic controllers at National Airport has “been inoperable” since March 2022.
McIntosh told senators he thinks the Pentagon maintains the line of communication.
“I think the next question would be why we were not aware of it and insist upon it to be fixed,” he told members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, adding that “we take safety responsibilities very seriously in the FAA.”
“We were not aware, but we became after that event,” the official added. “And now that we became aware of that event, we’re insisting upon that line to be fixed before we resume any operations out of the Pentagon.”
The FAA temporarily shut down a helicopter route near National Airport in March after an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger plane collided in January, killing 67 people in one of the deadliest airline accidents in the U.S. in the last 20 years.
“I would expect the DOD to expedite the timeline so they can begin operations,” McIntosh said.
When asked by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who chairs the committee, whether the hotline was inoperable, the FAA official said air traffic controllers at National Airport can communicate with the Pentagon using a landline.
He also told lawmakers on Wednesday that the federal regulatory agency was considering banning the Army from flying near National Airport’s airspace after an early May incident in which air traffic controllers had to divert two planes to prevent them from crashing into a military helicopter.
