Politics

United Airlines Reports Another ‘Scary’ Incident At Reagan Airport Just Weeks After Fatal Collision

Published

4 days ago

March 30, 2025

A United Airlines jet hit a kite while landing at Washington D.C.’s at Washington’s Reagan National Airport on Saturday afternoon in a “scary” incident that comes just weeks after the fatal mid-air collision that killed 67 when a military helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight that was making its landing.

The pilot from United Flight 654 from Houston to DCA can be heard over air traffic radio providing details about the kite, which was spotted from the cockpit, according to a report from WUSA9. It was the latest close call at one of the most hectic airports in the country, which has faced increasing calls to be shut down due to safety concerns.

On Saturday, the kite was spotted over Gravelly Point Park, a popular destination located just north of the airport along the Potomac River.

“You were telling me those details about the kite, whether it was over the park? How high was it?,” an air traffic controller can be heard saying in audio from LiveATC.net. “It was over the park about 100 feet over the ground, it looked like it was right on the flight deck. Those guys were a little bit low,” the United Airlines pilot replied.

Dylan Oakes, a WUSA9 producer and former flight attendant, was able to watch the moment the plane collided with the kite from Gravelly Point in Arlington, Virginia. “There was a kite that looked a little higher than it should be, we thought it might just be a perspective thing from where we were standing but, lo and behold, as the plane got a little bit closer, it came into contact with the kite,” Oakes told the outlet.

The latest incident comes just days after a near miss on Friday, when a Delta airliner that was taking off from the airport came within a few hundred feet of US Air Force Northrop T38 Talon trainer jets that were preparing for a flyover at Arlington National Cemetery.

In January, an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided with a Black Hawk military helicopter that was conducting a training flight. All three soldiers aboard the helicopter, as well as all 64 passengers and crew members aboard the commercial jet, were killed when both aircraft collided and plunged into the frigid Potomac. It was the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001 and has renewed scrutiny of Reagan National.

Ronald Reagan National Airport has one of the tightest air space situations in the world. Since the September 11 attacks, the airspace in Washington, D.C. has become incredibly restricted. Still, there are several military bases in the area, as well as several domestic flights in and out of the airport, which is located about five miles from downtown Washington, D.C.

A recent analysis from the National Transportation Safety Board found a stunning number of near misses at the airport, many of which involved close calls with military aircraft. In total, federal investigators recorded a stunning 15,214 “near miss” events of planes being in close proximity to helicopters between October 2021 and December 2024.

The NTSB further said that there were 85 cases where two aircraft where laterally split by less than 1,500 feet, and a vertical separation of less than 200 feet.