A U.S. passenger flight preparing to leave the nation’s capital and an incoming military jet received instructions to divert and prevent a possible collision, officials said.
Delta Air Lines Flight 2983 was cleared for takeoff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday around 3:15 p.m., the same time four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon aircraft were inbound, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
The jets were heading for a flyover of Arlington National Cemetery when the Delta aircraft received an onboard alert of a nearby aircraft. Air traffic controllers “issued corrective instructions to both aircraft,” according to the FAA, which intends to investigate.
The Airbus A319 with 131 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants was embarking on a regularly scheduled flight between Reagan and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Delta Airlines said.
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The flight left its gate at 2:55 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Minneapolis-St. Paul at 4:36 p.m. local time before the flight crew followed the diversion instructions from the controllers, the airline said.
No injuries were reported.
The Air Force’s website describes the T-38 Talon as “a twin-engine, high-altitude, supersonic jet trainer” used by different departments and agencies, including NASA, for various roles including pilot training.
This near collision comes days after the head of the Federal Aviation Administration told Congress during a hearing Thursday about a midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people that the agency must do more to ensure flying remains safe.
The FAA’s artificial intelligence-led review aimed at identifying safety threats at other airports with similar helicopter-airplane congestion should be finished in a couple weeks, said Chris Rocheleau, the agency’s acting administrator.
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During the hearing, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board and members of Congress again questioned how the FAA hadn’t noticed an alarming number of close calls near Ronald Reagan National Airport and addressed the problem before the January collision between an Army helicopter and a jetliner. The collision over the Potomac River was the nation’s deadliest plane crash since November 2001.
The FAA is using AI to dig into the millions of reports it collects to assess other places with busy helicopter traffic including: Boston, New York, Baltimore-Washington, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and along the Gulf Coast.
Investigators have highlighted 85 close calls around Reagan airport in the three years before the crash that should have signaled a growing safety problem. Rocheleau told the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that every close call is investigated and the data was reviewed before, but this alarming trend was missed.
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