Prior to the fatal air crash on Wednesday night near Ronald Reagan, there were at least 10 close calls to Washington Airport for the last three years documented in government records examined by the New York Times.
One of the most worrying came last April, when a Southwest Airlines flight was ordered to cross the same runway that a jetBlue Airways plane was cleared by a controller to take off. The JetBlue plane took off his take -off after a controller shouted at his pilots to stop. The Jet came 312 feet from the southwestern plane, according to a preliminary security report and recordings of the Federal Air Force reviewed by the Times. The security report said that the auditor who had cleared the southwestern plane had not coordinated with the controller directing the Jetblue plane.
The following month, a Jet American Airlines was cleared to take off at the same time that a private plane was permitted to land on a cross -corridor, according to another preliminary security report. As the US jet began to accelerate the treadmill, the controller suddenly took off. The jet left the treadmill, but the private plane had already touched the moment he received instructions from the auditor to cancel his landing. The controller did not warn each person’s pilots for the other aircraft and the two rapid movement The planes got in about 1,600 feet from each other.
These two incidents are now listed in a public database of aviation officials to call on corridors. This database, maintained by FAA, did not categorize any 2024 incident in Reagan National as severe enough to be able to conflict.
The close calls to Reagan National were part of a security motif that fell into the sky and the corridors across the country. A series of New York Times surveys in 2023 found that close calls for commercial airlines occurred on average, many times each week. Nearby casualties often took place in or near large airports and were often the result of pilots or air traffic controllers.
Times received reports in 2023, for example, showing that there were 503 air traffic control destroyed that FAA was categorized as “important” during the year ended on September 30, 2023, 65 % more than in the previous time. During this time, air traffic increased by approximately 4 %.
FAA did not respond to a request for comments.
FAA releases formal statements about incidents that attract public attention. The organization also maintains the public database of the corridor invasions, although there is often delay before the incidents occur.
The public database provides only a few details on the corridor invasions. For example, an entry shows that there was an incident in the Reagan National on November 6th for a regional jet aircraft and an Airbus A319 in the runway 19. It does not say which airlines are involved. For serious to E for “inadequate or conflicting evidence”, FAA categorized the incident as C because there was enough time or distance for the aircraft to avoid a collision.
Airline pilots have also previously documented concerns about helicopters around Reagan National. A separate database of NASA Air Force security issues describes two amazing incidents in recent years, which have included jet aircraft almost collided with helicopters near the airport. The database contains confidential, anonymous security reports submitted by pilots, air traffic controllers and others in the Air Force profession.
In April 2024, an airline captain reported a helicopter crash, while approaching Reagan National. Just as the jet was formed to land, the plane’s anti-plenary technology warned the pilots that there was a helicopter about 300 feet below the plane and climbing late. The pilots dug the plane away from a possible collision before landing safely.
The captain, however, said that the pilots in the jet never received warning from the air traffic controllers for the helicopter and that the pilots could not see it, so it was not “ignoring it was there”.
The security report included a warning warning: Put safer distances between the levels landed at Reagan and the helicopters flying above and under the Potomac River near the airport.
A similar incident happened in October 2022, when an airline captain reported almost clashes with a helicopter raised by a nearby hospital. Jet’s anti-adhesion technology warned the pilots of the possible disaster, listening to the alarm in the cockpit to immediately move the plane to a higher altitude. The captain estimates that the plane came in 300 feet or less than the helicopter.
