United flight narrowly avoids US military helicopter in California | US news
A United flight came within a few 100 feet of a US military helicopter near John Wayne airport in southern California, triggering an alert that prompted airline pilots to change course.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday that it was investigating the incident, which occurred when a military Black Hawk helicopter returning from a training mission crossed into the path of the plane at around 8:40 pm on Tuesday. The pilots of the passenger plane carrying 162 passengers and 6 crew stopped descending and stabilized to avoid collision.
The close call came a year after an American Airlines jet collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing 67 people in the deadliest crash on U.S. soil in more than two decades. The accident increased scrutiny of flight paths and regulations to prevent near-misses between aircraft.
The FAA changed its policy in early March as a result of the 2025 crash; It required air traffic controllers to actively use radar to guide helicopters and planes around airports across the country, rather than relying on pilots to see and avoid each other. Before the Washington crash, the air traffic controller asked the helicopter pilots if they had seen the plane and approved allowing them to escape.
The FAA said in a brief statement about the close call in Santa Ana, Calif., on Tuesday night that it would investigate whether the new rule was implemented.
United released a brief statement confirming details of the incident on Tuesday.
“During final approach to John Wayne airport in Orange County, the pilots on United Flight 589 were advised by air traffic control to watch for a military helicopter flying near the airport. They sighted the helicopter and also received a traffic alert, to which they responded by stabilizing the aircraft,” the statement said.
According to data from FlightRadar24, the United plane approached the helicopter 525 ft vertically and 1,422 ft laterally to closest point before stabilizing after airline pilots received an avoid-collision alert.
Archival records from the traffic control tower at John Wayne airport, accessed via LiveATC.net, show a traffic controller asked the plane’s pilot immediately after the close call if there had been any reference to the helicopter or if he had been told to restrict his altitude. The pilot said he received a “remedial recommendation” from the plane’s collision avoidance software, the most serious collision avoidance alert issued as an in-cockpit warning.
The air traffic controller responded, “We’ll address it because that wasn’t good.”
A California national guard spokesman sent a brief statement confirming that the helicopter, based at Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, was conducting routine training and returned to base “at a designated altitude while in communication with air traffic control.”
It was unclear after Tuesday’s closing call whether there were any temporary restrictions on flight paths or training routes.
The airport spokesman said he could not provide any information because the incident occurred in the air and not at the airport.
The latest close call came two days after an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck on the runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport, killing both pilots.
