Police were seized a kite on Saturday after flying near planes landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, according to airport police, and after a witness said he saw it coming into contact with a landing plane.
United Airlines said she “knew reports” that a kite was on the road to flight 654 from Houston.
“The aircraft landed safely, customers were spread normally and after inspection there was no damage to the aircraft,” United said.
Officers with the police service of the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority received reports on Saturday of a kite flying to Gravellly Point, a park north of a runway, Emily McGe, a spokesman for the department, said Sunday.
Gravelly Point is part of George Washington’s Memorial Parkway and is supervised by the National Park Service. The organization did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Sunday.
Kite Flying is prohibited in the park due to low -flight aircraft in the area. Officers “briefly seized” a kite on Saturday, Ms McGee said.
“This kite returned to its owner a little later and no charges were deposited,” Ms McGee said.
It was not immediately known how high the kite was flying or what kind of kite was seized. The Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday that it had no mention of the kite.
Jamie Larounis, a travel industry analyst, said in an interview on Sunday that he had reported the kite to the airport police after seeing it coming in contact with the plane on Saturday while walking home from the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington.
Stop sitting on Gravelly Park for 10 to 15 minutes. He described the park as “Paradise Paradise”, where he sometimes sees people with air traffic control radios watching the planes shortly before landing at the airport.
On Saturday, people ran, cycling and were flying about 10 to 15 kites, he said.
Most of the kites were flying relatively low, he said, but at one point he saw a green, “Run-of-the-Mill’s Kite’s Kite” flying higher and taller. He said it looked like two adults and a child to control it.
An incoming level “was at the right height to get in touch with this kite,” he said, and watched as the kite reached one side of the plane, between the fuselage and the engine.
The kite went down, confused on his own, he said.
He questioned the description by the kite police who was “briefly seized” and said he remained in a police car while the family left the park without it.
Mr Larounis called on the airport police to report what happened because he was worried that the kite could cause damage to the plane that had been unnoticed.
He said he was also particularly sensitive to aviation safety after an American Airlines flight collided with an army helicopter near the airport in January, killing 67 people on the two aircraft. FAA has since closed the helicopter route involved in the crash.
Another episode happened at Reagan National Airport on Friday, when four US aircraft aircraft came close to a Delta Air Air Lines aircraft. FAA is investigating.
