Another air disaster involving a commercial passenger plane and a military jet has been narrowly avoided in the skies above the United States capital Washington DC, just weeks after a deadly crash between an inbound American Airlines flight and a military helicopter.
This time it was a Delta Air Lines flight departing Reagan National at around 3.15pm on 29 March 2025 that had to take action after an on-board collision warning system sounded. Air traffic controllers “issued corrective instructions to both aircraft,” the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said. An investigation will now follow.
Close call reported between Delta flight DL2983 and Air Force T-38 jet near Reagan National 🚨Via @AirNavRadar
— Flight Emergency (@FlightEmergency) March 29, 2025
Flight data: https://t.co/F3YVXmDtAJ pic.twitter.com/uhHRkQr1yj
Less than 152 metres apart
FlightRadar24 data shows that, as it left for Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Delta flight’s take-off path took it to within just 152 metres – that’s less than the height of the Washington Monument – of one of four Air Force T-38 Talon jets, on their way to a flyover at Arlington National Cemetery.
A LiveATC.net recording of air traffic control communications reveals the Delta crew querying what had taken place. “Was there an actual aircraft about 500 ft below us as we came off of DCA?” the pilot asks. Air traffic control responds: “Delta 2983, affirmative.”
There were 131 passengers, two pilots and three other crew aboard the Airbus A319 at the time of the incident. No injuries were reported. The T-38 Talon is described on an Air Force website as “a twin-engine, high-altitude, supersonic jet trainer”. Its crews have not been identified.
DRAGO61 flt (T-38) was conducting a flyover at Arlington National Cemetery for a fallen soldier which requires them to fly in close proximity to DCA. DELTA 2983 (Airbus A319) was climbing out from DCA when they received a RA (Resolution Advisory) from their TCAS (Traffic Alert… pic.twitter.com/PA6rYb2h10
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) March 29, 2025
Crowded Washington skies
Since the American Airlines crash that killed all 64 people on board in January 2025 as well as the three military personnel in the Sikorsky Black Hawk that hit it, attention has been focused on how crowded the airspace above Washington is. In February, the FAA announced plans to reduce arrivals traffic by seven per cent.
The National Transportation Safety Board told a congressional hearing only the day before the latest incident that as many as 15,000 so-called “close proximity events” involving helicopters and commercial jets had occurred between 2021 and 2024, averaging nearly 14 narrowly-avoided crashes every day. And that is only the data for helicopters, whose routes around the capital have now been changed. The hearing resulted in a resolution to oblige military aircraft operating around the capital to fly with their collision warning systems on – just as the Delta flight was.
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people,” a spokesperson for Delta Air Lines told press. “That’s why the flight crew followed procedures to manoeuvre the aircraft as instructed.”
