(NewsNation) — Congress added more daily flights to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s schedule last year — and multiple other times over the past quarter century — despite warnings from the airport where 67 people died in a plane crash Wednesday night.
The collision between an American Airlines commercial passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River is the worst air crash in the U.S. since 9/11.
The crash was reminiscent of another on Jan. 13, 1982, when an Air Florida flight plowed into the Potomac due to bad weather, leaving 78 dead.
Wednesday’s crash has resurfaced concerns about the airport’s proximity to the river, narrow landing space and overcrowding. Despite the geographic and logistical challenges, Congress authorized 10 additional “slots,” or flights, to DCA’s daily flight schedule.
DCA (the airport’s three-letter code) operates on a “slot rule,” meaning the number of daily arrivals and departures is limited. Only four other high-density airports manage congestion this way: JFK and LaGuardia in New York, Newark in New Jersey and O’Hare in Chicago.
Reagan National serves as the area’s “short-haul” airport, according to its website, as nonstop service is limited to a perimeter of 1,250 miles. However, nonstop service is offered beyond that limit to West Coast cities such as Los Angeles and Seattle due to recent federal exemptions.
Through legislation passed by Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation can issue “beyond-perimeter” exemptions, allowing nonstop service to cities outside the 1,250-mile perimeter.
Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act authorized 10 additional daily flights to DCA’s schedule, all of which are outside the perimeter. This decision was made “over the strong opposition of the Airports Authority,” DCA’s website says. Congress also added 54 total slots spread across 2012, 2003 and 2000.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., opposed the increase.
“With this profoundly reckless decision, the (Commerce, Science and Transportation) Committee is gambling with the safety of everyone who uses this airport,” Kaine said in a statement last February. “As we have said countless times before, DCA’s runway is already the busiest in the country.”
Members of Congress travel frequently, using the two D.C.-area airports, Reagan National and Washington Dulles International Airport.
“Forcing the airport to cram additional flights in its already crowded schedule will further strain its resources at a time when air traffic controllers are overburdened and exhausted, working 10-hour days, six days a week,” Kaine said before a final bill was written last year.
An FAA report obtained by the Associated Press said one air traffic controller was working two positions at the time of Wednesday’s crash, which was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
On May 25, 2023, nine days after the reauthorization act was signed into law, the FAA sent a memo to the Office of Government and Industry Affairs to provide an analysis of how the additional slots would impact delays and airport operations.
“Additional flights at DCA would likely have a negative impact on operational performance and passenger experience,” the memo said.
About 20% of departures and 22% of arrivals at DCA experienced average delays of a little more than an hour from January 2022 through May 2023.
The memo clarified that slot limits are based on airport capacity, not demand. Whereas Congress successfully sought to increase the number of slots, the FAA “imposes slot limits when demand exceeds capacity,” the memo said.
“I was so distraught when I heard this news last night,” Kaine told the New York Times on Thursday. “I will not be able to rewatch the speech I gave on the Senate floor about it because it would make me too upset.”
