Federal investigators are looking into a close call between a United Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter near John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California. The incident is raising fresh concerns about air safety near busy airports.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the incident happened on Tuesday (March 24) at around 8:40 p.m. local time. United Airlines Flight 589, carrying 162 passengers and six crew members, was on final approach to John Wayne Airport after departing San Francisco when a Black Hawk helicopter crossed in front of the plane. Flight tracking service Flightradar24 measured the two aircraft as just 525 feet apart vertically at the closest point.

Air traffic controllers had already alerted the United Airlines pilots to watch for the military helicopter nearby. When the cockpit's collision avoidance alarm sounded and the crew spotted the helicopter, pilots leveled the aircraft to increase the distance between the two. "They saw the helicopter, and also received a traffic alert, which they responded to by leveling the aircraft," United Airlines said. The flight landed safely.

The California National Guard said the Black Hawk, based at Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, was returning to the Los Alamitos airfield along an established Visual Flight Rules route after a routine training mission. The agency said the helicopter was in contact with air traffic control throughout the flight. "A thorough review will be conducted in coordination with the appropriate agencies," the National Guard said.

The FAA confirmed it is investigating the incident and whether it violated a new safety rule announced just last week. That rule, issued on Wednesday (March 18), requires air traffic controllers to use radar — rather than relying on pilots to visually track one another — to manage separation between planes and helicopters near more than 150 of the nation's busiest airports. "The FAA's data analysis revealed for high-traffic areas, visual separation was not enough of a safety mitigation tool," the agency said.

The new policy applies to John Wayne Airport and extends a restriction already in place at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. The upgraded measure followed a year-long FAA safety team review.

This investigation comes in the wake of several recent close calls. On February 27, an American Airlines flight and a police helicopter came dangerously close to each other near San Antonio International Airport in Texas. On March 2, a twin-engine Beechcraft 99 and a helicopter nearly collided at Hollywood Burbank Airport in Southern California.

All of these incidents follow the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in years — the January 29, 2025, mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport, which killed all 67 people on board. Investigators found that the crash stemmed from multiple failures, including a loss of separation between the two aircraft and air traffic controllers relying too heavily on asking helicopter pilots to visually avoid nearby planes.

On Thursday (March 26) — the same day the FAA announced its probe of the John Wayne Airport incident — two U.S. House committees unanimously passed sweeping aviation safety reform legislation that directly addresses the separation of helicopter and airplane traffic. The FAA's investigation into Tuesday's close call remains ongoing.

The Herd with Colin Cowherd