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Military helicopter crosses in front of United flight approaching John Wayne Airport; FAA investigating

March 26, 2026

A military helicopter crossed in front of a United Airlines flight as it approached John Wayne Airport on Tuesday night, March 24, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to a preliminary investigation, United Airlines Flight 589 was on approach to the airport around 8:40 p.m. when a Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter crossed its flight path, the agency said.

It was not immediately clear how close the two aircraft came to each other or whether any evasive action was required. No further details were available.

AnnaSophia Servin, a spokesperson for John Wayne Airport, said it was not considered a “close call.”

The FAA said it is investigating the incident, including whether a recently implemented measure limiting the use of “visual separation” between airplanes and helicopters was in effect at the time. No further details were available,

Visual separation, often described as “see and avoid,” allows pilots to maintain distance from other aircraft by keeping them in sight rather than relying solely on air traffic controllers and radar, said Juan Browne, a former U.S. Air Force flight instructor with 20 years of commercial airline experience.

Browne said limiting the use of visual separation means aircraft are instead kept apart using stricter air traffic control methods, rather than relying on pilots to see and avoid one another.

United Airlines said its pilots were alerted by air traffic control to a military helicopter near the airport during the flight’s final approach. The crew saw the helicopter and received a traffic alert, responding by leveling the aircraft before landing safely, the airline said.

The California National Guard confirmed the helicopter was an Army National Guard aircraft conducting a routine training mission, CBS News reported.

The helicopter was returning to Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos along an established Visual Flight Rules route at an assigned altitude and was in communication with air traffic control at the time, the California Air National Guard told CBS. Both aircraft landed safely.

Concerns about the intermingling of commercial airline and helicopter traffic near airports has been a growing topic of conversation in the industry following the January 2025 mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people.

During a hearing on that crash in January, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said she has heard from airline officials regarding their concerns about helicopter traffic, pointing specifically to Hollywood Burbank Airport as a location of concern.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Orange County Register

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Military helicopter crosses in front of United flight approaching John Wayne Airport; FAA investigating

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