Ask many of Congress’ frequent fliers, and they’ll tell you Ronald Reagan National Airport has sent up red flags for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’ve long been very, very nervous about congestion at Reagan National,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.<\/p>\n
“The congestion of the airspace around Reagan and D.C.<\/a> as a whole definitely played a part in this,” said Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., a former firefighting pilot. “The sheer number of aircraft in the air is as high as it’s ever been.”<\/p>\n “A lot of aircraft transit up and down the Potomac,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former Navy combat pilot and astronaut. “Getting in and out of certain areas. The Pentagon. Other military installations. Reagan right there in that highly trafficked area.”<\/p>\n “Whenever I’m at Reagan and I see new gates being built, the terminal getting larger, I realize that there will never be another inch of runway. The skies are pretty congested,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “I often think there’s too much activity for this small plot of land. And I’m sure there’ll be a reevaluation of all of that.”<\/p>\n REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT CRASH: MILITARY BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER COLLIDES MIDAIR WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES JET<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The nation\u2019s worst air disaster in nearly a quarter-century spilled into the Potomac River<\/a> just short of Washington\u2019s Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. Sixty-seven people died after American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kan., collided with an Army Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter feet from the runway.<\/p>\n Aviation experts say flying in and out of Reagan National is one of the most complicated airports in the country. The approach from both the north and south is over water. Pilots must navigate a narrow corridor above the river \u2013 but not fly over the nearby Pentagon. That\u2019s to say nothing of piercing Washington, D.C.\u2019s super-protective airspace. The White House and U.S. Capitol are clearly visible when planes take off to the north.<\/p>\n Moreover, the airport is known for notoriously short runways. The runway on which the American Eagle flight attempted to land stretches a little more than 5,200 feet. Slightly less than a mile in length.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not even the main runway. Standard commercial runways average around 13,000 feet. The longest runway at Reagan National is about 7,000 feet. Plus, all three runways cross one another. Such a configuration is rarely seen at modern airports.<\/p>\n DC PLANE CRASH: ATC STAFFING LEVELS UNDER SCRUTINY AS BARGES ARRIVE TO HELP SALVAGE OPS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Last spring, there were two incidents where planes nearly crashed into one another while crossing runways.<\/p>\n The runways are some of the most overused in the entire American flight system. The airport was designed to handle 14 million passengers annually. But that number spiked to 25 million in 2023. The airport accommodates a staggering 800 takeoffs and landings each day.<\/p>\n There were efforts to close Reagan National when Dulles International Airport opened in 1962. Dulles is a monstrosity of a campus. However, it resides nearly 30 miles from Washington, D.C., proper. The nation\u2019s movers and shakers never gravitated to Dulles when it was so easy to fly into Reagan National, deplane, catch a cab and arrive at the State Department for a meeting 15 minutes later.<\/p>\n Lawmakers, aviation, national security officials and the Secret Service<\/a> conducted serious conversations about permanently closing the airport after 9\/11. It was thought that air traffic in and out of Reagan National posed too much of a risk to the seat of government. It wouldn\u2019t take much for hijackers to commandeer an aircraft and reroute it to Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n After all, one plane crashed into the Pentagon on 9\/11. The fourth plane \u2013 which went down in a field near Shanksville, Penn. \u2013 was ultimately bound for the Capitol.<\/p>\n DC PLANE CRASH: POTOMAC RIVER DIVERS’ SEARCH FOR BODIES COMPLICATED BY CONDITIONS OUT OF THEIR CONTROL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n That said, advocates for maintaining Reagan National argued it was nearly impossible to hijack a plane taking off and immediately send it barreling toward the Capitol. It takes a while to engineer a hijacking. There was simply not enough time to execute such a plan seconds after takeoff.<\/p>\n Still, authorities shuttered Reagan National for more than three weeks following 9\/11. New safety rules were in place once the airport re-opened. Planes couldn\u2019t have more than 156 seats. All passengers were required to be seated a half-hour before landing. Air marshals patrolled most if not all flights in and out of the airport.<\/p>\n The feds loosened many of those restrictions anywhere from a few months to nearly four years after 9\/11. But that didn\u2019t diminish questions about the safety of this particular airport.<\/p>\n VICTIMS IDENTIFIED IN DC PLANE CRASH INVOLVING AMERICAN AIRLINES JET AND MILITARY HELICOPTER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n However, proponents of maintaining Reagan National had some of the most powerful allies in the nation: Members of Congress.<\/p>\n Lawmakers keep insane schedules. In fact, the invention of the jet airplane contributed to such bedlam. Lawmakers are in high demand in their districts or states \u2013 and on Capitol Hill. That\u2019s to say nothing of conferences in Aspen or Halifax \u2013 and glitzy fundraisers in New York or San Francisco. So air travel, coupled with access to a nearby airport, is paramount in the modern Congress.<\/p>\n The importance of aviation is even incorporated into the Congressional vernacular<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mondays or Tuesdays are often deemed “fly-in” days. The House and Senate don\u2019t truly get going until late in the day during the first day of the week. Thus, votes on Monday might not unfold until 5:30 pm et in the Senate and 6:30 in the House. Depending on if the House (and sometimes the Senate) convenes on a Monday or Tuesday, Thursdays and Friday are considered “getaway” days. The House might cut town by late morning or noon on a getaway day. If the Senate doesn\u2019t toil for five days (which has happened a lot this year, but not this week), the last vote often hits around 2:15 or 2:30 pm. on a Thursday.<\/p>\n Thus, lawmakers have a vested interest in keeping Reagan National operational. Even after 9\/11.<\/p>\n Congress reauthorized programs for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for five years in 2024. But one of the most contentious issues in the bill was whether Congress should authorize additional daily “slots” for Reagan National. New, regular flights commence in a few weeks to Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle, San Antonio and San Francisco. Lawmakers have blessed an increase of about 50 additional daily “slots” at Reagan National since the turn of the century.<\/p>\n It\u2019s telling that only four senators opposed the FAA bill last year. All four were the local Washington, D.C., area senators: former Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., \u2013 who just retired \u2013 along with Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Kaine.<\/p>\n The Senate confirmed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on a bipartisan vote Tuesday. Duffy faced a crisis by Wednesday night. By Friday, the new secretary tightened up airspace around Reagan National for helicopters.<\/p>\n But like everything in Washington, the key to Reagan National is all about access. It\u2019s hard to find any major airport on the planet located so close to the levers of power.<\/p>\n And as long as the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a myriad of federal agencies and lobbying shops exist in Washington, it\u2019s doubtful that Reagan National is going anywhere.<\/p>\n Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ask many of Congress’ frequent fliers, and they’ll tell you Ronald Reagan National Airport has sent up red flags for years.\u00a0 “I’ve long been very, very nervous about congestion at Reagan National,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. “The congestion of the airspace around Reagan and D.C. as a whole definitely played a part in this,” … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}