A Black Hawk helicopter passed directly in front of a United Airlines passenger jet Tuesday as the plane was landing at John Wayne Airport, federal officials said. <\/p>\n
The close call occurred around 8:40 p.m. as a United Airlines Boeing 737, flying out of San Francisco, was approaching the Orange County airport and a Sikorsky helicopter \u201ccrossed in front of United\u2019s flight path,\u201d a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said in an email.<\/p>\n
In air traffic control audio reviewed by The Times, the pilot of the flight stated that they had received a resolution advisory about the helicopter \u2014 an automated alert to climb or descend to avoid a collision. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be addressing that, because that was not good,\u201d the air traffic controller responded.<\/p>\n
The two aircraft were within 1,422 feet of each other laterally, or a little more than a quarter of a mile, at the time of the near miss and 525 feet apart vertically, according to data from Flightradar24<\/a>.<\/p>\n The jet was carrying 162 passengers and six crew members, a United spokesperson said in an email. <\/p>\n According to United, the plane\u2019s pilots took action to avoid the helicopter.<\/p>\n The pilots \u201cwere advised by air traffic control to watch for a military helicopter flying near the airport,\u201d the company said. \u201cThey saw the helicopter, and also received a traffic alert, which they responded to by leveling the aircraft. The United flight then landed safely.\u201d<\/p>\n The FAA is investigating the incident, including whether \u201ca new measure to suspend the use of visual separation between airplanes and helicopters was applied,\u201d the agency spokesperson wrote. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation mandated<\/a> that air traffic controllers rely on radar to manage aircraft flight paths, barring them from instructing pilots to avoid aircraft based on sight. <\/p>\n