Plane and Blackhawk helicopter crash in Washington DC

Anita18 said:
My sister flies into DCA a lot for work with a federal government department. It’s so much closer to DC than the alternatives. I can’t imagine Congress (whose members also use it a lot) would vote to reduce flights there. Shutting it down was even on the table once, to clear out the airspace more, and I definitely can’t imagine them going for it.
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Can I ask a question when I fly to Washington DC its always the other airport, IAD. Until this past year I never realized Washington DC had two airports. How far away is IAD airport I usually fly into? How long has Reagan airport existed for?
 
AngieNikodinovLove (ANL) said:
Can I ask a question when I fly to Washington DC? It’s always the other airport. Until this past year I never realized Washington DC had two airports. How far away is the airport I usually fly into? How long has Reagan airport existed for?
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National airport is the older airport of the two. Washington Dulles was built well after and is gosh, what, 20- 30 miles outside of DC? National is usually preferred because you can catch a cheap taxi or metro ride into the city but it’s A little scary because of all the flight restrictions
 
skatfan said:
National airport is the older airport of the two. Washington Dulles was built well after and is gosh, what, 20- 30 miles outside of DC? National is usually preferred because you can catch a cheap taxi or metro ride into the city but it’s A little scary because of all the flight restrictions
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Interesting whenever I connected in DC I always at IAD, I never had heard of Reagan airport until earlier last year. This is just so tragic.
 
skatfan said:
National airport is the older airport of the two. Washington Dulles was built well after and is gosh, what, 20- 30 miles outside of DC? National is usually preferred because you can catch a cheap taxi or metro ride into the city but it’s A little scary because of all the flight restrictions
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I flew into Reagan airport once and took a taxi/shuttle to a hotel where my ride picked me up. Will avoid it now. Dulles has more SWA flights anyway.

Back to the tragic news - I lived in Kansas (but not in Wichita) for four years. I wonder how many people from Kansas were on that flight? Did I know anyone from school? When they publish the list of the victims, I will read it very carefully.
 
skatfan said:
National airport is the older airport of the two. Washington Dulles was built well after and is gosh, what, 20- 30 miles outside of DC? National is usually preferred because you can catch a cheap taxi or metro ride into the city but it’s A little scary because of all the flight restrictions
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I've only flown to/from DC a few times, I remember on a high school trip we used BWI and that commute was long and boring. Another time I remember a flight taking off basically straight up and passing the Washington Monument on the way. That must have been National, huh? (this would have been in the 90s before the name change)
 
AngieNikodinovLove (ANL) said:
Interesting whenever I connected in DC I always at IAD, I never had heard of Reagan airport until earlier last year. This is just so tragic.
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Reagan flights are limited in distance, mostly, so if you’re flying nonstop from the West Coast it’s going to be Dulles. Congresspeople from Western states keep trying to enlarge the flight distances because Reagan is so much more convenient to DC, I remember McCain agitating for direct flights between Reagan and Arizona (didn’t work.)

Reagan also shuts down every night because of flight path noise over the city.
 
Vash01 said:
I wonder how many people from Kansas were on that flight?
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Here in KC they ran the Wichita mayor’s press conference. She did not have a list but one local Wichita family showed up at a place they had set up for people who were on the flight.
 
PRlady said:
Reagan flights are limited in distance, mostly, so if you’re flying nonstop from the West Coast it’s going to be Dulles. Congresspeople from Western states keep trying to enlarge the flight distances because Reagan is so much more convenient to DC, I remember McCain agitating for direct flights between Reagan and Arizona (didn’t work.)

Reagan also shuts down every night because of flight path noise over the city.
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Apparently the plane that took off just minutes before the crash was the last outgoing flight and this was the last incoming flight
 
Anita18 said:
If this tragedy finally gets the FAA to redesign the DCA airspace and its rules, at least their deaths won’t be in vain.
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Sadly, that seems unlikely. In its first 2 weeks, the administration put a hold on hiring new air traffic controllers, forced the FAA administrator to resign, fired the TSA chief, and dissolved the Aviation Security Advisory Committee. Expect less regulation, not more.

This video by a pilot has a clear description of the airspace around DCA and what the aircraft were doing leading up to the collision.
 
Spikefan said:
Here in KC they ran the Wichita mayor’s press conference. She did not have a list but one local Wichita family showed up at a place they had set up for people who were on the flight.
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I saw the Wichita mayor’s news conference on cnn.
 
After full investigation the cause of the collision will be made public. My first impression is that the helicopter may be at fault. The plane was following directions from the control tower and the latter had contacted the Blackhawk. I did hear on tv that they were just 300 ft apart. Sounds dangerous for anything that’s flying. Knowing the cause may help avoid similar accidents in the future but nothing can bring back the lives lost. Sad. :(
 
PRlady said:
Reagan flights are limited in distance, mostly, so if you’re flying nonstop from the West Coast it’s going to be Dulles. Congresspeople from Western states keep trying to enlarge the flight distances because Reagan is so much more convenient to DC, I remember McCain agitating for direct flights between Reagan and Arizona (didn’t work.)

Reagan also shuts down every night because of flight path noise over the city.
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How long has this been in effect? When I "commuted" to Buffalo from Seattle in the late '90's (just after the name change), I used to take one of those sparsely populated (20-ish passenger) Sunday night red-eyes -- the profile targeted by the 9/11 terrorists -- to Reagan, have breakfast, and then board a mid-morning US Air flight to Buffalo.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
How long has this been in effect? When I "commuted" to Buffalo from Seattle in the late '90's (just after the name change), I used to take one of those sparsely populated (20-ish passenger) Sunday night red-eyes -- the profile targeted by the 9/11 terrorists -- to Reagan, have breakfast, and then board a mid-morning US Air flight to Buffalo.
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I’m not sure but for many years I’ve known there are limited longer distance flights. For example, I’m flying to AZ in March from Reagan but through Chicago Midway (having not learned my lesson getting stuck there last year, I guess.) The SW nonstops are all from BWI.

There are also no international flights from Reagan except to Canada and maybe the Caribbean.
 
not to be a picky local but the name of the airport is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport; it was never changed from National to Reagan, both are part of the name and its often called Reagan National
 
There are definitely longer flights from DCA. I just booked a block from DCA to LAX for a work function this summer. On Alaska Air.
 
PRlady said:
I’m not sure but for many years I’ve known there are limited longer distance flights. For example, I’m flying to AZ in March from Reagan but through Chicago Midway (having not learned my lesson getting stuck there last year, I guess.) The SW nonstops are all from BWI.

There are also no international flights from Reagan except to Canada and maybe the Caribbean.
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There are nonstop flights from DCA to PHX
 
ilovesalchows said:
There are definitely longer flights from DCA. I just booked a block from DCA to LAX for a work function this summer. On Alaska Air.
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skatemomaz said:
There are nonstop flights from DCA to PHX
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These may have been added in the last year, as was the flight from Wichita. Apparently, there was a lobby effort either by or to Congress to add additional routes & flights.

This very much feels like there are going to be multiple reasons why this tragedy happened and multiple oversights that may have prevented it.
 
PRlady said:
I’m not sure but for many years I’ve known there are limited longer distance flights. For example, I’m flying to AZ in March from Reagan but through Chicago Midway (having not learned my lesson getting stuck there last year, I guess.) The SW nonstops are all from BWI.

There are also no international flights from Reagan except to Canada and maybe the Caribbean.
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My sister has taken the direct SFO to DCA route for years on Alaska. (I took it myself back in 2023.) It's not that often though, maybe once a day, IIRC.


BlueRidge said:
not to be a picky local but the name of the airport is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport; it was never changed from National to Reagan, both are part of the name and its often called Reagan National
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My sister also says nobody calls it Reagan, everyone she knows/works with still calls it National. Or DCA. Which tells you something about federal government employees' opinions about who the airport is named after... :p
 
Spikefan said:
Here in KC they ran the Wichita mayor’s press conference. She did not have a list but one local Wichita family showed up at a place they had set up for people who were on the flight.
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Are you in KC Ks or KC Mo? Not that it matters. They are almost like one.
 
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