A federal investigation is focusing on an air traffic control communications breakdown that led to a formation of military jets coming within seconds of colliding with a Delta Air Lines flight near Reagan National Airport, multiple sources told CNN.
The March 28 incident was in the same crowded Washington, DC, airspace that was the site of January’s fatal midair collision between a commercial flight and an Army helicopter.
The new details, first reported by CNN, renew concerns about the safety of military and commercial aircraft operating in close proximity and raise new questions about whether air traffic controllers in the nation’s capital are too stressed in the wake of the worst US air disaster in decades.
As previously reported by CNN, the night before the incident, a fight broke out in the Reagan National control tower, leading airport police to arrest an air traffic controller.
According to previously unreleased air traffic control audio reviewed by CNN, collision alerts flashed in front of the air traffic controller responsible for handling the military jets as they maneuvered for a flyover of Arlington National Cemetery, with the controller frantically issuing instructions to the formation of four jets.
“Drago 61, I need you to make a left turn, left turn heading 250 immediately,” the controller from Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control shouted via radio to the leader of the United States Air Force T-38 jets. “Traffic opposite direction departing Washington National.”
The military jets – flying at more than 350 miles per hour – came less than 3,900 feet laterally and 100 feet vertically from the Delta Airbus A319, which just took off from the airport and was still climbing, according to a source briefed on the incident. A CNN analysis of the previously unreported distance between the flights put against speeds gathered by FlightRadar24 suggests the jets came within roughly five seconds of colliding.
The new details add to growing scrutiny of the crammed airspace around Reagan National Airport in the wake of the January 29 collision of a US Army Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, killing all 67 people on board. The Federal Aviation Administration has since imposed heavy restrictions on helicopters operating near the airport.
The communications breakdown, according to sources familiar with the incident, appeared to occur when air traffic controllers in the Reagan National Airport control tower failed to hold departing flights for five minutes as planned leading up to the 3:17 p.m. flyover. A short pause in departures from the airport is standard protocol for Arlington cemetery flyovers, but for some reason that did not happen, that source said.
The source added that two other commercial flights departed after the Delta flight, which received an in-cockpit collision alert known as a resolution advisory.
The apparent failure stunned those briefed on the case who say aviation officials “now fear what else could happen.” The FAA, which is investigating the incident, responded by deploying a “critical incident stress management team” to the control tower to provide “confidential support for staff.” The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the case.
CNN has reached out to both agencies for comment.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Senate committee that oversees the FAA, said during a committee hearing last week that the incident was “far too close, seconds away from becoming yet another disaster.”
“The air traffic center that controls airspace around D.C. notified DCA about the flyover,” Cruz said. “That should have led to halted traffic,” calling the incident a “serious communication breakdown is just the latest in a string of missteps that signal that the air traffic organization is under extreme stress.”
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