Commercial Aircraft Over the White House

H

HerrGruyere

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
720
Location
Middle River, MD
Display Name
Pistol Pete
Home Airfield
KMTN
Hey all,

My coworker was out jogging in D.C. over the weekend - around 16th Street - and said he saw a particularly large commercial aircraft initiate a steep bank over the White House. He said all the other aircraft at DCA were flying normally; but, this one appeared to have banked super steep over the White House.

I told him I wasn't sure and that maybe it was a missed approach or perhaps the pilot was given vectors to do so. I also thought maybe it was one of the CRJs or Dash-8s coming out of the "diagonal" runway at DCA, but he said that wasn't it. He said he's never seen that happen where a larger plane banked like that over the White House.

Anybody have any insight on this? Maybe it was military?

Pete
 
The prohibited area is actually very small. It wasn't really set up for security but just to keep direct overflights over the White House/Mall area and as you know it's less than a half mile to the river where the flights routinely are. River visual arrivals have to make a sharp turn over Roosevelt Island (as with some of the IFR approaches). Departures off runway 1 turn sharp left right after takeoff and runway 4 sharp right. All of this happens only a few blocks south of the White House.
 
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