Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is furious that an Army helicopter disregarded restrictions and caused two passenger jets to change course.

First, here’s the news about the helicopter:

An Army helicopter flying in the D.C. airspace Thursday forced two commercial passenger jets inbound to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to perform go-around maneuvers — roughly three months after the airport was the site of the nation’s worst aviation fatality in more than two decades.

The Federal Aviation Administration sent out a notice about the incidents on Friday.

Reagan National airport has been in the spotlight ever since the catastrophic crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional passenger jet killed 67 people in January and set off a wave of investigations.

According to the email written Friday by Chris Senn, FAA’s assistant administrator for government and industry affairs, obtained by POLITICO, the Army helicopter — also a Black Hawk — “took a scenic route around the Pentagon versus proceeding directly from the west to the heliport” on Thursday, prompting controllers to call for two go-arounds.

 
Sean Duffy responded to this on X and he said he’s going to be talking to the DOD on “why the hell our rules were disregarded”:

Unacceptable. Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystal clear. In addition to investigations from @NTSB and @FAANews, I’ll be talking to the @DeptofDefense to ask why the hell our rules were disregarded.

Safety must ALWAYS come first. We just lost 67 souls! No more helicopter rides for VIPs or unnecessary training in a congested DCA airspace full of civilians. Take a taxi or Uber – besides most VIPs have black car service.

So glad he’s taking this so serious because this needs to stop before something else horrible happens again.