On May 1, another close call made headlines near Reagan National Airport (KDCA) in Washington, D.C. This time, the incident involved two commercial jets—a Delta Air Lines A319 and a Republic Airways E170—and a Black Hawk helicopter from the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion.
The helicopter’s crew took a “scenic route,” the FAA claimed, deviating from its planned route to the Pentagon. This divergence prompted a controller at Reagan National to call for go-arounds of the two jets.
Army officials have since dismissed the FAA’s claims, saying the crew followed published procedures.
Last week’s incident comes just over four months after another Black Hawk—operated by the same battalion—collided with a PSA Airlines CRJ-700 that was on approach to KDCA on January 29. The collision killed all 67 people on both aircraft, marking the deadliest accident involving a U.S. airline in well over a decade.
This was especially personal for the families of the victims lost on American Flight 5342—the regional jet involved in January’s collision—with many taking to social media last week to call for change.
In an X post by @FamiliesofFlight5342, they said Thursday’s close call was “unbelievable to us.” But for Tim Lilley, whose son, Sam, was the first officer on Flight 5342, the incident felt like a painful echo—a sign, he said, that lessons still haven’t been learned.
Tim Lilley spent decades flying Black Hawk helicopters in the Army, including several flights on the same route in which the collision occurred in January. He also flew in and out of the Pentagon on several occasions.
“That’s what’s really bugging me,” Lilley said in a Wednesday interview with FLYING. “It’s like, hey, if you’re going to go back and fly to the Pentagon after you just killed 67 people, aren’t you going to put a guy out there that’s going to do it professionally and not make you look bad?”
It’s unclear how much separation was lost between the Black Hawk and jets last week, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating.
“I think what’s really troubling me the most is that when they got ready to go back and operate around DCA, they came back just the same way they left. They didn’t learn any lessons,” Lilley stated.
Bipartisan Push
After flying in the Army, Lilley briefly flew CRJ aircraft—the same type as his late son. He currently flies for a charter operator but also started advocating for changes in aviation safety after January’s accident.
Lilley says he’s met with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who announced sweeping changes to air traffic control (ATC) infrastructure on Thursday. Families of the Flight 5342 victims attended Duffy’s event.
“And so what we’re going to do as the families is…try to make sure that all legislators are on board to fund the fight,” Lilley said.
Duffy has said these upgrades could cost “tens of billions” of dollars.
Lilley believes that Duffy, who took the DOT’s helm just hours before the January 29 crash, is capable of getting the job done.
“I think he gets it,” Lilley said.
This morning was tough. I met with Tim and Sheri Lilley, parents of Sam Lilley, the American Airlines First Officer who lost his life in the mid-air collision at @Reagan_Airport. They are heartbroken, and our nation mourns with them and all the victims of this senseless tragedy.… pic.twitter.com/v4Nuphk4xf
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) March 6, 2025
Following last week’s incident, Lilley sent a letter with pictures and some diagrams after doing “half an hour’s worth of research and was able to see what went wrong.”
‘Stonewalling’
Even before last week, Lilley had repeatedly called for more transparency from the Army.
“I’ve been sending messages to the leadership there to tell them ‘you guys are hurting your brand name,’” he said. As an Army veteran himself, Lilley stated that he doesn’t “know why they’re taking the tactic that they are.”
Lilley and others have credited the DOT, American Airlines, and the NTSB for their support after January’s accident. But the Army has been much more reserved on outreach, some have said.
“I’ve been trying. I’ve been pushing…they’re stonewalling me,” he said.
“I hope that at some point, I can get somebody from the administration to put the pressure on. I haven’t been able to meet with the secretary of defense or the secretary of the army yet,” Lilley continued. “If that happens, I’m hoping that we can have a frank discussion about what the Army needs to do to move forward in a safe manner.”
Lilley did credit the Army for some recent safety-related changes, including additional training and risk management program modifications.
“So those are two good things they’re working on,” he said.
Following last week’s incident, the 12th Aviation Battalion has suspended flights to and from the Pentagon pending an internal inquiry, just days after resuming operations there.
National Security and Complacency
Located at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, the 12th Aviation Battalion provides support for key national security missions, in addition to the transport of high-ranking Department of Defense officials.
The Black Hawk involved in the January 29 accident was operating for this unit, and the crew was practicing a mission to evacuate high-ranking government officials from Washington. The call sign “Priority Air Transport,”’ or PAT, was used.
Last week’s close call involved the same battalion and call sign, though it isn’t clear if this was a practice mission or if they were transporting officials from the Pentagon as a so-called “taxi service.”
Duffy has called for DOD officials to “take a Suburban” following these incidents, especially given the Pentagon’s proximity to Reagan National at less than 2 miles away.
According to Lilley, the DOD has since clamped down on this practice. Now, only top brass can take helicopters to and from the Pentagon, such as the secretary of defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“[Before] they used to fly any old general in and out of there,” he said. “Why they were going in there at that time, I do not know. I was a main offender back in the 90s, I flew in and out of the Pentagon. I got [flights] two or three times a week with sometimes a four-star, but sometimes a three- or a two-star general on board. It really wasn’t necessary.
“We did things differently back then. We actually paid attention, and we stopped at Hains Point if somebody was on approach to Runway 33 [at Reagan National]. We waited for them to land, and then we went. And I don’t know why they decided that…[or is it] let’s just do it any old way we want.”
Lilley said that the DDD has been “so lucky for so long” around Reagan National. Between October 2021 and December 2024, there were 15,214 near-miss events at the airport involving commercial airplanes and helicopters, though not all were military aircraft, the NTSB reported.
“They’ve normalized unsafe acts,” Lilley said.
Asked about the national security mission of the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion in the D.C. region, Lilley said it should be transferred “to the Marines because the Army [isn’t] doing it right.”
