A California National Guard UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter crossed in front of a United Airlines Boeing 737-800 on final approach to Santa Ana’s John Wayne Airport on the evening of March 25, 2026, triggering an onboard collision avoidance alert and prompting an FAA investigation.
United Airlines Flight 589, operating from San Francisco International Airport with 162 passengers and six crew members, was descending through 2,000 feet on approach to John Wayne Airport (SNA) when the incident occurred, at approximately 8:40 p.m. local time on March 24, 2026.
The Black Hawk crossed in front of the 737-800 at an altitude of 1,425 feet. At their closest point, the two aircraft were separated by 525 feet vertically and 1,422 feet laterally, generating a Traffic Collision Avoidance System Resolution Advisory (TCAS RA) for the United crew.
Crew alerted, aircraft leveled off
The helicopter, a California National Guard UH-60 flying under the callsign Knife 25, had been flagged to the United crew by air traffic control before the alert triggered. The pilots spotted the aircraft visually and, in response to the TCAS RA, leveled off to increase vertical separation before resuming their descent. The flight landed safely approximately three minutes after the advisory was issued.
The California National Guard confirmed that the helicopter was conducting a routine training mission and was returning to Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos along an established Visual Flight Rules (VFR) route at an assigned altitude, while in communication with air traffic control.
FAA investigates amid broader safety push
The FAA has opened a formal investigation into the incident. It is also examining whether its recently introduced policy suspending the use of visual separation between airplanes and helicopters in high-traffic areas was properly applied.
That policy was introduced after the January 2025 fatal mid-air collision near Reagan National Airport, when a US Army Black Hawk struck an American Airlines regional jet over the Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. In response, the FAA required controllers to use radar-based separation, rather than relying on pilots to maintain visual clearance from other traffic.
The crash triggered a broader review of helicopter-airliner conflict management across US airspace. The NTSB later concluded the accident was fully preventable and blamed systemic failures within the FAA.
Against that backdrop, on March 26, 2026, two US House committees unanimously passed sweeping aviation safety reform legislation that includes provisions addressing separation standards between helicopters and airliners.
