A passenger plane and an Air Force jet were forced to divert course to avoid a mid-air collision near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport just outside of Washington.
Delta Air Lines Flight 2983 was cleared for takeoff on March 28 at about 3:15 p.m. At the same time, four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon aircraft were inbound for a flyover at Arlington Cemetery, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
When one of the Air Force aircraft was getting close to the Delta plane, air traffic controllers issued instructions to both aircraft to divert course in order to avoid a collision.
A recording of air traffic control communications suggested that the Air Force jet was just 500 feet below the Delta plane after the two successfully diverted course.
The Airbus A319 with 131 passengers, two pilots, and three flight attendants was embarking on a regularly scheduled flight between Reagan and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, according to Delta Airlines.
The January collision raised questions about the military’s failure to use a key safety system known as ADS-B on helicopter training flights.
It also shined a spotlight on congressional efforts to create more non-stop flights to accommodate lawmakers’ schedules despite persistent safety warnings from local airport authorities that the airport lacked the capacity.
Some 64 daily flights have been added to the airport’s schedule since 2000, with 10 more on the way from legislation last year. That has left Reagan with the busiest runway in the nation despite being the 24th busiest airport in terms of total flights.
The crowded airspace around Washington drew attention last year when Congress debated an aviation safety bill that allowed 10 more flights per day at Reagan, drawing sharp objections from lawmakers in Virginia, where the airport is located.
The American Airlines plane involved in January’s crash was on a newly added route from Wichita, Kansas, and had been diverted to a different runway that was closer to Army helicopter flight paths because of congestion on its originally scheduled runway.
Safety issues at the airport have been further compounded by its proximity to several military installations, including Bolling Air Force Base, which sits immediately across the Potomac River from Reagan in Washington proper.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, airplane pilots flying into or out of Reagan were alerted to take evasive action to avoid hitting helicopters at least once a month, every month, from 2011 through 2024.
Similarly, on March 1, more than a dozen flights on final approach to Reagan received false collision warnings, prompting at least six flights to abort their landings. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later stated that the false positives were because of government testing of counter-drone technology.
Since the January crash, the FAA has imposed permanent restrictions on non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan and barred helicopters and passenger jets from flying near each other.
