The main runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport, where an inbound American Airlines passenger jet collided with a U.S. military helicopter on Wednesday night, reportedly is the busiest for commercial air traffic in the nation.
Although officials have not indicated that congestion played a factor in the collision that killed all 67 on board both aircraft in the worst U.S. air disaster since November 2001, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said Thursday it might be time to address the situation.
"Well, I think [that's] certainly a conversation to be had," Bowser told CNBC, according to The Hill. "It's argued almost annually about adding slots here. I do think that's a conversation for another day, but it has our attention."
The airport is located on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, and military helicopters and passenger airplanes are a common sight along the river where the collision happened. The Government Accountability Office reported in 2021 that over a three-year period ending in 2019, there were 88,000 helicopter flights within 30 miles of Reagan National, including about 33,000 military and 18,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement flights.
"This airport handles a lot of people safely from around the nation ... around the world, and we want that to continue to happen," Bowser said. "But we know that all Americans, the flying public, and certainly the families who have lost loved ones need answers."
The airport opened in June 1941 during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third term and a second terminal was added in 1997, according to the airport's website. It has just three runways, the longest of which is 7,169 feet, relatively short for a commercial airport that handles so much traffic. The other two runways are about 5,000 feet long, which forces the main runway to handle the most traffic.
Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, who piloted a passenger aircraft to a safe landing on the Hudson River in 2009, told The New York Times on Thursday that Reagan National requires additional training for pilots who operate from it. He said the airport hasn't changed much since its opening 83 years ago.
"Of course, we've added technology to it," he said. "But a lot of the technology is old."