Aviation officials learned of the issue after controllers at National had to order two flights to abandon landing attempts this month due to an Army helicopter heading to the Pentagon.

A “hotline” between air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Pentagon intended to coordinate aircraft has not worked since March 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed in a congressional hearing Wednesday.

A vital hotline that connected air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport to Pentagon officials had been down for three years without anyone noticing, a Federal Aviation Administration official has admitted.