Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport just outside the U.S. capital operates in a complex airspace where domestic flights, military planes, helicopters and other aircraft are in close proximity, relying on electronic safeguards and human decision-making to avoid catastrophe.
Debates over congestion at Reagan have increased in recent years, along with concerns over near-miss crashes.
Last year, there was a close-call incident at Reagan National Airport involving another American Airlines plane that had been cleared for takeoff but nearly collided with an incoming King Air plane that had been cleared for landing on a nearby runway. Less than two months earlier, JetBlue and Southwest planes nearly collided on a runway at the same airport.
There were at least eight near-midair collisions at Reagan National Airport in 2024, according to Federal Aviation Administration data.
Flights into and out of Reagan National Airport — the U.S. capital’s most convenient domestic air terminal — have traditionally been limited to destinations within 1,250 miles of the airport, which restricts long-distance flights.
Still, lawmakers have lobbied to expand Reagan’s flight perimeter and add flights into and out of the airport, which many of Washington’s power brokers use. In 2023, dozens of lawmakers lobbied for 28 additional round-trip flights per day out of the airport, many of which would serve their districts, easing their journeys home.
At the time, the F.A.A. warned that adding flights to Reagan would strain the system.
The American Airlines plane that collided with a U.S. Army helicopter on Wednesday night near Reagan, known as DCA, had been traveling from Wichita, Kan., to Washington on a route that was just added last year, in part due to the lobbying efforts of Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas.
“I know that flight, I’ve flown it many times myself,” Senator Moran said at an early morning news conference. “I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct, nonstop flight service to DCA.”
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