Air Traffic Control Screws Up Again: American Airlines A319 Aborts Takeoff at High Speed To Avoid Another Plane
An American Airlines Airbus A319 had a near miss at Washington’s Reagan National airport on Wednesday. Flight 2134 to Boston was cleared for takeoff on runway 1, while a King Air was cleared to land. Air traffic control realized their mistake, cancelling takeoff clearance for the American Airlines flight – and telling the King Air to abort and go around. They couldn’t because they were already on the ground.
The American Airbus rejected takeoff at 107 knots. It stopped in just 1,200 feet, with the King Air registration N250AA crossing in front of it around 1,500 feet ahead. As a sidenote, this King Air is unusual. Non-commercial aircraft movements are highly limited at the airport but this one has been there many times before.
- Tower: American 2134 cancel takeoff clearance. …Zero, alpha, alpha, go around, go around
American 2134: Rejecting the takeoff 2134
King Air: Zero alpha alpha, cannot go around, we are already on the ground.
Tower: American 2134 do you want to go back to the gate?
American: We need to talk to maintenance, but yeah, I think we were above 80 knots so we’re going to have to get an inspection.
American Airlines Airbus A319
The American plane returned to service after a four and a half hour delay. According to the FAA,
An air traffic controller cancelled the takeoff clearance for American Airlines Flight 2134 because another aircraft was cleared to land on an intersecting runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The event occurred around 10:30 am local time on Wednesday, May 29. The FAA will investigate.
This follows another near-miss at the airport last month. Shockingly, local Congressman Don Beyer is demagoguing the issue – and distracting from the air traffic control failings. (HT: HoKo)
We warned Congress repeatedly about the safety risks of putting more traffic on DCA’s congested runways.
I’m grateful no one was hurt here, but this could have been much worse.
Our colleagues’ decision to ignore our warnings and increase traffic at DCA will increase the danger. https://t.co/w6uhgZK1Km
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) May 30, 2024
The state’s two senators piled on irresponsibly,
“We’re deeply relieved that no one was injured after two planes nearly collided at DCA on Wednesday morning, but this incident is further evidence that the airport is severely overburdened and at capacity,” Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said in a joint statement. “It shows why the Senate’s decision to jam even more flights onto the busiest runway in America as part of the FAA reauthorization bill — a move we fought against for months — was so dangerous and reckless.”
The incident quite obviously is not the result of adding slots for 5 roundtrip flights a day at the airport because those flights have not been added yet.
We’re talking about an increase of less than 1% of daily flights. We don’t have specific time slots yet, but there are certainly valleys in traffic during the day. (And National airport was one of the most on-time in the world in 2023.)
The issue here is clearly air traffic control – again. And that’s an issue which which is hardly limited to this airport. There are 300 near-collisions per year. Famously last year we had the American Airlines New York JFK – London flight which nearly taxied into a Delta 737 and the Fedex plane that was cleared to land on top of a Southwest Airlines 737 in Austin.
Focusing on airport slots distracts from honing in like a laser on dangerous air traffic control problems that we’re facing in the United States. That’s irresponsible for U.S. Congressmen and Beyer, Warner, and Kaine should be ashamed of themselves. The focus on their pet political issue, and away from safety, could be the difference in making real change at the FAA’s air traffic organization, and puts lives at risk.
