Officials reported a U.S. passenger airplane about to depart the capital and an arriving military jet got orders to divert and avoid a probable collision.
The Federal Aviation Administration stated in a statement that Delta Air Lines Flight 2983 was authorized to depart Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday at 3:15 p.m., the same time four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon planes were coming.
When the Delta plane got an onboard warning of a close aircraft, the jets were en route for a flyover of Arlington National Cemetery. According to the FAA, air traffic controllers “issued corrective instructions to both aircraft,” intending to look into.
Delta’s pilot in a recording of air traffic control contacts inquired, “Was there an actual aircraft about 500 ft below us as we came off of DCA?”
The controller said on a LiveATC.net archived tape, “Delta 2983, affirmative.”
Delta Airlines stated the Airbus A319 with 131 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants was embarking on a regularly scheduled trip between Reagan and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
According to the airline, the flight departed its gate at 2:55 p.m., was meant to arrive in Minneapolis-St. Paul at 4:36 p.m. local time, and then the flight crew followed the controllers’ diversion orders.
There were no reported injuries.
The Air Force’s homepage characterizes the T-38 Talon as “a twin-engine, high-altitude, supersonic jet trainer” employed by several departments and agencies, including NASA, for numerous functions including pilot training.
The event follows barely two months after a midair crash above the same airport killed 67 people. The worst U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades was the Jan. 29 crash between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger airplane. Both planes went down into the Potomac River, killing everybody on board.
