A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter assigned to the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion performs a flyover during the 2023 Army Ten-Miler in Arlington, Va. (Defense Department)

WASHINGTON — The Army is pausing helicopter training flights around the Pentagon after a Black Hawk on Thursday forced two commercial airplanes to abort landings at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport, three Army officials confirmed Monday.

The flights have been suspended since Friday pending an internal inquiry, according to one of the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The helicopter involved in the incident last week belonged to the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion, which was also involved in a catastrophic midair collision with a regional jet on Jan. 29 that killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft.

The Virginia-based unit had resumed flights in the Washington area only a few days before the latest episode, according to lawmakers.

“The Army is once again putting the traveling public at risk,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Friday. “Thank God there was a decisive response from air traffic controllers and pilots, or else these two close calls could have resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said the Army helicopter on Thursday had lapped around the Pentagon as it flew to the building’s heliport, forcing two commercial jets to perform “go-around” maneuvers and abandon attempts to land.

Cruz, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said it was time for the FAA to “act swiftly and assert control” over the national airspace so the Army “stops running air taxis for military officials” near the airport.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Friday accused the Defense Department of disregarding helicopter rules around the airport and said there should be “no more helicopter rides for VIPs or unnecessary training in a congested DCA airspace full of civilians.”

The Pentagon’s heliport is often used to ferry military leaders and foreign guests to and from the Pentagon. It was being used Thursday by a helicopter rehearsing a Joint Emergency Evacuation Plan, according to NBC.

The Military District of Washington, which oversees Army operations within the nation’s capital, said Friday that the helicopter was flying in accordance with the FAA’s flight routes and the airport’s air traffic control.

“The United States Army remains committed to aviation safety and conducting flight operations within all approved guidelines and procedures,” the Army said in a statement.

An Army official said Monday that the 12th Aviation Battalion is suspending helicopter flights into the Pentagon for the time being.

The Army also said it was reviewing the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are also investigating. The FAA closed part of a helicopter route and put in place new procedures to separate planes and helicopters following the fatal January crash.

Lawmakers said they want to see more efforts to control the busy traffic above the airport, which is about 4 miles from Capitol Hill. There have been 85 recorded events involving potentially dangerous near misses between a helicopter and a plane since 2021.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said the Army and the FAA needed to reevaluate their operations and return to Congress to explain what needs to be done to ensure airspace around the airport is safe.

“The tragic accident at DCA in January and the data that has come to light on near-misses at DCA over the last four years overwhelmingly demonstrate that new safety measures must be implemented before military helicopters resume operations near the airport,” he said Friday on X.

Cruz said he was committed to crafting and advancing legislation through the Senate Commerce Committee to keep the public safe from Army helicopter flights that are “dangerously close” to Reagan National Airport.

“We already had a tragedy that should not have happened,” said Moran, who also sits on the panel.