TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

Another Close Call at D.C. Airport as Plane Hits Kite While Landing

The kite was later confiscated from a family in Gravelly Point park.

A warm spring weekend in Washington, D.C. led to a close call after a kite hit a United Airlines plane making a landing at the Reagan National Airport on Saturday. Luckily, United Airlines said no one on UA flight 654 from Houston was hurt: “The aircraft landed safely, customers deplaned normally and upon inspection there was no damage to the aircraft.” The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement that it responded to reports of kite-flying at Gravelly Point park, where the activity is not allowed because of risks posed to low-flying aircraft. “Officers warned some individuals about flying kites and briefly confiscated a kite. That kite was returned to its owner shortly later and no charges were filed,” MWAA said. Witnesses who spoke to CBS and NBC noted multiple kites flying in the park but said one in particular “got progressively higher and higher.” Just a day before this incident, a Delta flight nearly collided with an Air Force jet over D.C., setting off warning alarms in the cockpit of the passenger plane. It’s the latest in a string of near-misses and aviation disasters following a collision near Reagan Airport that killed 67 people in January.