FAA investigating close call between passenger jet, Army helicopter in California

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a helicopter that crossed in front of a commercial plane in California, the agency said in a statement.

United Airlines Flight 589 was on its way to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif., on Tuesday around 8:40 p.m. when a Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter crossed its path. The aircraft were 525 feet apart vertically and 1,422 feet laterally, according to the flight tracking site Flightradar24. 

“During final approach to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, pilots on United flight 589 were advised by air traffic control to watch for a military helicopter flying near the airport. They saw the helicopter, and also received a traffic alert, which they responded to by leveling the aircraft,” United Airlines said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.

Six crew members and 162 passengers were on the plane while the helicopter was returning to base after conducting routine training and was in communication with air traffic control, AP reported. They did not collide. 

The close call came days after the FAA suspended the use of visual separation between airplanes and helicopters and mandated that air traffic controllers use radar to “actively manage these aircraft to keep them separated at specific lateral or vertical distances,” according to a statement by FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

The practice of visual separation is when air traffic controllers advise pilots about nearby aircraft and allow them to manage their own way in the air and rely on their sight to avoid collision. The FAA said it was investigating whether visual separation was used during Tuesday’s incident, according to AP. 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the air traffic system’s “overreliance on visual separation in order to promote efficient traffic flow without consideration for the limitations of the see-and-avoid concept” was one of the multiple factors that led to the January 2025 collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines plane near Reagan Washington National Airport.

All 60 passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants on American Airlines flight 5342 were killed, along with the three crew members on the Army Black Hawk helicopter.

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