After second near-miss collision at Reagan National, aviation expert says nothing was done to prevent it

Wednesday's near-ground collision between an American Airlines plane and a King Air plane at Reagan National Airport, the second close collision in a month, once again raises questions about what aviation safety experts consider a serious shortage of air traffic controllers nationwide.

The Federal Aviation Administration opened an investigation into this latest incident, when an American Airlines plane was taking off and nearly collided with a King Air plane that was landing on a shorter runway nearby.

About two-thirds of the way through Runway 1, the two runways crossed and air traffic controllers asked the American flight to abort its takeoff because the King Air was on the ground and approaching the intersection. The American plane was estimated to be approaching speeds of 90 miles per hour and was 1,300 feet from the King Air plane before stopping and leaving the runway.

In the recordings, air traffic controllers can be heard urgently ordering the American Airlines pilot to stop takeoff and leave the main runway to avoid encountering the smaller plane.

“American 2134, cancel takeoff clearance!” » declared an air traffic controller. “Zero alpha alpha, go around!” Take the tour!”

“Takeoff rejected, 9:34 p.m.,” a pilot responded.

“Zero alpha alpha, we can’t go around. We were already on the ground,” the pilot explained.

“American 2134, do you want to go back to the gate?” » declared the air traffic controller.

“Yes, we need to talk to maintenance, but yes, I think we were above 80 knots, so we're going to have to do an inspection,” the pilot said.

The American plane was inspected and no damage was found. He finally left for Boston, about four hours later.

John Nance, a retired captain and aviation safety expert, told WTOP that this incident once again shows the urgent need for the FAA to hire and train air traffic controllers and integrate them into the system a once they are ready.

“We don’t have enough air traffic controllers. We don’t practice enough,” Nance said. “We're still tired in air traffic control and we're not solving these problems quickly enough.”

However, even if this problem were resolved immediately, it will still take years of training before controllers can work in the largest and busiest air traffic control facilities and airports.

Earlier in May, President Joe Biden signed the new five-year FAA reauthorization bill that the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers and others say will improve staffing in airports and air traffic control facilities.

This latest incident at Reagan National comes just a month after a similar incident involving two jets, one Southwest and the other with JetBlue. The FAA also opened an investigation into this incident, and in this case the two planes came within 400 feet of each other.

Nance said the aviation system has several redundant systems to avoid collisions, but the safety margin is getting narrower.

“The problem is we can't continue to rely on backup systems to do this. One of these days we are going to experience a tragedy,” he said.

The close call involves several senators who represent Maryland and Virginia, as well as several affected House members. They fought against an initiative in the FAA reauthorization bill to dramatically increase the number of long-distance flights from Reagan to the West Coast, and already several airlines are fighting to win those coveted slots.

Maryland U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said that instead of adding flights from Reagan, the region's two largest airports, Dulles International and BWI Marshall, should be used for all five landings and takeoffs additional that are added to Reagan.

He said Congress's decision to expand flights to Reagan was “misguided and it's another very scary moment.”

While awaiting the results of the FAA investigation, Van Hollen said he will work with his Virginia colleagues to see if there is a way to “reclaim” the additional slots at Reagan.

WTOP's Mike Murillo contributed to this report.

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