Airbus A319, King Air Involved in Washington-DCA Close Call

An American Airbus A319 and a King Air aircraft – registered as N250AA – were both involved in a Wednesday morning incident at Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA). As first reported by AvHerald, the Boston-bound A319 was forced to reject its takeoff at over 80 knots as the King Air was landing on an intersecting runway.

The Airbus was operating flight AA2134 at the time and was cleared for takeoff on Runway 1 while the King Air was landing on Runway 33. According to air traffic control audio, the tower controlled canceled flight 2134’s takeoff clearance after noting the conflict.

The landing King Air was instructed to go around, but said they were unable due to already being on the ground. A spokesperson from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the agency is investigating the incident.

Air traffic control audio from the incident can be heard courtesy of LiveATC:

“An air traffic controller cancelled the takeoff clearance for American Airlines Flight 2134 because another aircraft was cleared to land on an intersecting runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The event occurred around 10:30 am local time on Wednesday, May 29,” the agency said.

This close call follows a string of similar incidents at DCA, including last month when a Southwest 737 MAX was told to cross a runway with a JetBlue E190 already on its takeoff roll. The JetBlue flight was forced to reject the takeoff at approximately 30 knots.  Last year, a Republic Airways Embraer jet crossed in front of a departing United aircraft at the airport.

Runway 1/19 at DCA is the nation’s busiest single runway with 819 average daily scheduled operations, per data from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

After the incident, flight 2134 returned to the gate for a maintenance inspection. It departed just over four hours later.

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Ryan Ewing

Ryan founded AirlineGeeks.com back in February 2013 and has amassed considerable experience in the aviation sector. His work has been featured in several publications and news outlets, including CNN, WJLA, CNET, and Business Insider. During his time in the industry, he's worked in roles pertaining to airport/airline operations while holding a B.S. in Air Transportation Management from Arizona State University along with an MBA. Ryan has experience in several facets of the industry from behind the yoke of a Cessna 172 to interviewing airline industry executives. Ryan works for AirlineGeeks' owner FLYING Media, spearheading coverage in the commercial aviation space.

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