5 months ago
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ARLINGTON, Va. (WDCW) — A kite reportedly made interaction with a United Airlines formation Saturday arsenic the level was approaching Reagan National Airport (DCA), the hose said.
In a connection to NewsNation affiliate WDCW, United Airlines said it is alert of reports that a kite struck United Flight 654, which departed from Houston for Washington, D.C.
However, the hose added that "the craft landed safely, customers deplaned usually and upon inspection, determination was nary harm to the aircraft."
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), whose constabulary section patrols Reagan National (DCA) and Dulles International airports, said that its officers had responded to reports of kite-flying that time astatine Gravelly Point.
Gravelly Point, a parkland crossed the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is conscionable a fewer 100 feet distant from the northbound extremity of DCA's runway. People are not allowed to alert kites determination due to the fact that of "the information of low-flying aircraft," according to the MWAA.
Upon responding to the park, the airport's authorization said officers concisely confiscated a kite flying successful the restricted aerial space.
"That kite was returned to its proprietor soon aboriginal and nary charges were filed," said Emily McGee, a spokesperson for the MWAA.
Officers besides warned radical astir flying kites successful the area.
Across the Potomac connected the National Mall, National Cherry Blossom Festival organizers held the yearly Blossom Kite Festival connected Saturday to observe cherry blossom season. According to organizers, the kite festival was unrelated to the kite-flying enactment astatine Gravelly Point.
The reported incidental comes conscionable 2 months aft an American Airlines level and a U.S. Army Black Hawk chopper collided supra the Potomac River near DCA, sidesplitting 67 people.
On Friday, a Delta Air Lines Flight preparing to permission Ronald Reagan and an incoming subject pitchy received instructions to divert and forestall a imaginable collision, officials said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
