PSA CRJ-700 AA midair collision

Pilot Fighter said:
Why would you want DCA to operate with one runway? I think I know your answer but don’t want to be presumptuous.

On a related note, do you think San Diego is happy about only having one runway?
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I doubt they are happy about it. But both airports have roughly the same passenger volume annually. Does DCA really need a second runway most of the time, or is it used for convenience because it's there? Could larger planes reduce the number of planes using the airport?
 
arkavgal said:
Why did the FAA want to close it? Proximity to the Pentagon?
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No, following two incidents, the FAA wanted to permanently close 4, their logic was muddy.

Closing 4 would have presented greater ATC challenges, including increasing 33 volume dramatically.

We need to get better at handing 33/Route 4 traffic (which has been considered pretty safe for decades) and not entertain hair-trigger reactions.
 
derg said:
I vaguely remember. Was that before or after the parking garage drama?

I guess I could google it. Nevermind! :)
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guywhoflies said:
Without using the circle to 33, DCA is basically a single runway airport. By utilizing the circle, they can have departing traffic line up and wait on 1. As soon as the landing traffic clears the intersection, they clear the departing traffic for takeoff. When landing traffic doesn’t circle to 33 (for a variety of reasons), it’s common for the tower controller to clear a departing aircraft to line up and wait and also tell them to be ready for an immediate departure. Before you can even get the thing lined up on the centerline, tower is clearing you for takeoff and advising traffic is on a 2-2.5 mile final. Basically, they have been trying to fit 10 lbs of poo in a 5 lb bag for years
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Yeah they pack them tight. In the Air Florida 737 accident I recall that only 1 was open and Air Florida began rolling when the New York Air DC9 ahead was still rolling and an Eastern 727 landed while Air Florida hasn't even rotated. DCA has only gotten busier since the early 80s.
 
inigo88 said:
Agree and neither does my other example SFO, so maybe I’m misunderstanding how DCA uses the circle to land runway 33 to their advantage.

My understanding was that there was a departure on runway 1 prior to PSA, and that tower changed PSA to the circle to land runway 33 to reduce the separation required from same runway separation rules (3000/4500/6000 ft, wake turbulence if applicable, I’ve heard of RECAT but I don’t totally understand it yet, etc) to intersecting runway rules (which I understand to be basically will the intersection be clear when the arrival passes the runway threshold). I’m not a controller so I’m referencing 7110.65 3-10-3 and 3-10-4, if that’s even the right place to look. If DCA’s usage of runway 1 vs runway 33 is more nuanced than that, I’m interested to learn. :)
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You've got the right idea, what they are doing here is more akin to offloading arrivals to a departure runway when running parallels, only with the added complexity of the runways crossing. Side-step maneuvers are quite common at many airports, but they are usually used to fix compression between successive arrivals. In this situation they are offloading to the other runway to build space for departures. This also adds even more complexity to the operation. Departing from 33 would require crossing an active runway, increasing complexity even further.
 
arkavgal said:
Could larger planes reduce the number of planes using the airport?
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If you ignore everything else, your math works out.

That said, airports serve the public. The public defines the demand for airline services. Airlines meet the public demand for those services. The nature of the demand defines routes, aircraft selection, and pricing.

The capabilities of an airport are limited. These limitations at any given airport are pretty well understood. More runways give ATC more options to handle the workload.

DCA can handle 757’s, we don’t see many because there is poor demand for that airframe on routes serving DCA.
 
arkavgal said:
Could larger planes reduce the number of planes using the airport?
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Larger aircraft isn’t always the solution. Frequency and routes influence the schedule. If the frequency is reduced, so are the connection options for the consumer.

The Airbus A380 only serves select markets because of the demand and infrastructure needed to accommodate it.
 
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