Shortly before fatal crash, jet pilot was asked to change runways

Shortly before an American Airlines regional jet and an Army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night, the plane’s pilots were asked to pivot its landing route from one runway to another, according to a person briefed on the event and conversation overheard on audio recordings of conversations that occurred between an air traffic controller and the pilots.

American Airlines Flight 5342, which was en route to Washington from Wichita, Kansas, had originally been cleared by the National Airport traffic control tower to land on the airport’s main runway, called Runway 1, the person briefed on the events and the audio recordings revealed. But in the final moments of the flight, this person and these recordings also showed, the jet pilot was asked by air traffic control to instead make a circle landing on a separate, intersecting runway, Runway 33.

That decision, according to the person who was briefed on the event and two other people who are familiar with the airport’s air traffic, happens routinely when regional jets such as the American Airlines aircraft are involved, and may have been made to help keep air traffic moving efficiently by not clogging the main runway. It nonetheless raised questions within the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday morning about congestion at Reagan National, one of the nation’s busiest airports, the person briefed on the event added.

It is also raising questions about the safety of using intersecting runways, the person briefed on the event said, which the FAA has sought to eliminate or close in recent years in places including Chicago and Dallas because of concerns about congestion on the ground.

Spokespeople for the FAA and American Airlines did not respond to requests for comment.