At the time that the planes were redirected, a U.S. Park Police helicopter was searching for people reported missing from a vehicle that had flipped over in the area of the Key Bridge.

Two commercial aircraft scheduled to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport on Thursday afternoon were forced to do "go-arounds" after a military helicopter allegedly took a scenic route to the Pentagon.

The Jan. 29 collision over the Potomac River in Washington, DC — which preliminary reports have blamed on the military Black Hawk flying too high — was the deadliest US air disaster since 2001, and caused officials to change the flight path of helicopters near the airport.