The airport where a passenger jet was set to land before it collided with a military helicopter Wednesday night has long grappled with safety issues, according to aviation experts and media reports.
American Eagle Flight 5342 crashed into an Army Black Hawk helicopter in midair near Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, killing all 67 people aboard. But even before the disaster, several past safety incidents had occurred at the airport, and lawmakers and members of the aviation industry warned that it was only a matter of time before something catastrophic unfolded there.
According to air traffic control data obtained by The Washington Post, a similar incident almost unfolded at the airport just 24 hours earlier. Per that data, the Post reported, a Republic Airways flight jet trying to land at DCA had to make a second approach when a helicopter appeared near its flight path.
A CNN review of federal incident reports found that at least two other pilots have reported near-misses with helicopters while landing at DCA.
And according to The New York Times, an internal Federal Aviation Administration report suggests that the air traffic controller on duty at DCA the night of the collision was doing a job typically handled by two people.
David Soucie, a retired safety inspector with the FAA, wrote in an opinion piece for MSNBC on Thursday that he’d “dreaded” inspecting flights at DCA because it “hosts many different types of operations within a tight airspace.”
“The airspace is both complicated and crowded as an increasingly high volume of passenger planes share the air, and communications frequencies, with military aircraft, VIP flights, White House transportation and drones flying clandestine operations,” he wrote.
Retired Delta pilot Allen Campbell told USA Today that DCA is one of the most difficult airports for pilots to navigate.
“You don’t want to be the rookie on your first flight landing there,” said Campbell, who is also a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. “That airport, right along the river, is one of the most challenging.”
The intense focus required to land at DCA can keep pilots from spotting other aircraft in their surroundings, he continued.
“They don’t have time to be looking out the side window for a black helicopter,” he said. “And we’re talking about a black helicopter at night — it’s very difficult to see, and that’s by design.”
A bill last year added 10 additional daily flights from the airport.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) was among the lawmakers who raised concern about the added flights at DCA, pointing to an incident last May in which two planes nearly collided on one of the airport’s runways.
“Thank God, a collision and catastrophe were averted,” Kaine said at the time. “But more and more planes on this busiest runway in the United States is just going to increase the chance of a significant incident.”
Kaine spoke with NPR again Thursday morning to reflect on his past warnings in light of the crash.
“A number of us have been sounding the alarm about congestion for some time,” he said of DCA’s flight schedule, noting the airport was designed to handle about 15 million passengers a year but is “now well in excess of 20 million a year.”
Despite these concerns, President Donald Trump has blamed the catastrophe on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
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