FAA investigating close call between a passenger plane and military helicopter in California
Source: AP
By CLAUDIA LAUER
Updated 11:41 AM CDT, March 27, 2026
A United Airlines flight came within a few hundred feet of a military helicopter near John Wayne Airport in Southern California earlier this week, triggering an alarm directing the airline pilots to change course.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it is investigating the incident that happened around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday when a military Black Hawk helicopter returning from a training mission crossed into the plane’s path. The pilots of the passenger plane carrying 162 passengers and six crew members stopped their descent and leveled off to avoid a collision.
This close call comes just over a year after an American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing 67 people in the deadliest crash on U.S. soil in more than two decades. The crash increased scrutiny of flight paths and regulations in place to avoid near misses between aircraft.
Earlier this month, the FAA changed policy as a result of that 2025 crash, requiring air traffic controllers to actively use radar to direct helicopters and planes around airports nationwide, rather than relying on pilots to see and avoid each other. Before the Washington crash, the air traffic controller asked the helicopter pilots whether they had seen the plane and approved letting them avoid it.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/helicopter-military-california-flight-faa-close-call-4c5de18794034d45d36f5ad02102013c