A hotline between military and civilian air traffic controllers in Washington, D.C., that hasn't worked for more than three years may have contributed to another near miss shortly after the Army resumed flying helicopters in the area for the first time since January's deadly midair collision between a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter. Sen. Ted Cruz said a hearing Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration official in charge of air traffic controllers, Frank McIntosh, confirmed that the agency didn't even know the hotline hadn't been working since March 2022 until after the latest near miss. He said civilian controllers did still have other means of communicating with their military counterparts through landlines, but the FAA is insisting the hotline be fixed before helicopter flights resume around Ronald Reagan National Airport.
