Washington plane crash: Profound sense of loss in Wichita - the 'air capital of the world'

Sky News

30-01-2025

In two news conferences this morning, the pain and bewilderment were both palpable.
At the Washington airport where the American Eagle jet was due to land, officials were forced to say what no air crash investigator wants to - that rescue had turned to recovery.
There was a sense of bewilderment over how this could have happened, a pledge to find out what went wrong and most importantly to recover the bodies of all those who died from a debris field that is widening all the time with river currents and wind.
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Many hundreds of miles away, in America's heartlands, in the Kansan city of Wichita, where the plane took off, the sense of loss was profound.
At a news conference there, the mayor spoke for everyone in saying that "whether a Wichitan, a Kansan or an American", the pain is shared.
By tragic coincidence, the city of Wichita has aviation in its blood. Known as the 'air capital of the world', it has a long proud history of aviation manufacturing, a home for Boeing, Cessna, and Learjet.
Focus in Washington is now on the two aircraft, the flight paths, and what went wrong.
DCA as it's known - or Reagan National - is the regional airport that serves Washington DC. It largely caters to domestic flights from across the US.
It sits on the Potomac River just a mile south of the city.
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Planes routinely take off and land following the line of the river. The skies above DC are often congested with helicopters too.
However, complex and well-rehearsed air traffic control procedures along with designated separate flight paths for commercial aircraft and helicopters are in place to avoid collisions.
Helicopters often fly very low along the river's path to avoid the commercial flight path.
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The skies above DC are also subject to very specific fly and no-fly zones because of the presence of sensitive locations like the White House, the Capitol, and the Pentagon which is located just one mile from DCA.
The procedures were tightened after the September 11 2001 terror attacks in which a plane was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon less than a mile from the airport.
In 2008, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) issued a final rule entitled, "Special Awareness Training for the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area".
It required any pilot who flies under 'Visual Flight Rules' within a 60 nautical mile (69 mile) radius of the DCA area to complete the required training course.
The military has confirmed that the Black Hawk helicopter, which is a common sight in the DC skies, was on an annual proficiency training flight and being flown by a "fairly experienced crew" wearing night vision goggles.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is now leading the investigation into America's worst aviation accident in over two decades.