An American Airlines flight headed into Reagan National Airport 24-hours before the fatal crash Wednesday was forced into a last-minute go-around to avoid another aircraft — the second known redirect in the hours before the fatal crash.
One of the passengers, Marcus Webster, told The Post that and his fiancé were flying first class on American Airlines Flight 5210 from Destin, Fla., to Washington DC on Tuesday when the nerve-racking change of plans occurred.
Flight 5210 was diverted just 1,100 feet above ground — pilots getting the worrying directions from ATC at an even later point in the flight plan than another jet redirected that night, Republic Airways Flight 4514, which hit 1,600 feet before being redirected on that same day.
Radar tracking data for Flight 5210, available on Flight Aware, shows a sharp spike in the altitude of the plane at the end of its route.
Marcus Webster, an experienced flyer, tells The Post that he was surprised at the late redirect at the time of the flight — and has a whole new perspective on the go-around after the fatal accident at the same airport Wednesday.
“Could’ve been a close call, man,” Webster tells The Post, adding, “Definitely feel lucky, especially after all those people lost their lives.”
Webster says that Flight 5210 was over the Potomac River and coming in quickly on approach to Reagan National Airport when they were directed to abort their planned landing.
“We’re coming across the river, like approaching,” Webster says of the airport, which sits on the Potomac River and which was designed and built in the 1930s.
“We’re approaching the ground and then man, all of a sudden, you just kind of felt it dip a little bit and then the nose just went right back up into the air,” he recalled.
“Pilot gets on, and he’s like, ‘Yea, sorry folks, Air Traffic Control called and said we were getting a little too close to another aircraft so they diverted us back around,’” Webster recalled.
“He was stuttering a little bit,” the regular flyer said of the pilot’s tone, adding, “So that would tell me that he was a little bit worked up.”
Webster tells The Post that he immediately recalled the pilot’s words when his fiance told him about the midair collision at DCA between an American Airlines operate passenger plane and a military Black hawk helicopter on Wednesday.
When asked if he’ll be flying back into DCA after his wedding, Webster had a short answer.
“Hell no. Not after all this. No way,” he told The Post, adding, “I just don’t see it happening.”
He added that he and his fiance have already booked their return flight to a different regional airport.
Webster says he is not hesitant to fly, but he is concerned about the apparent short-staffing issues at Air Traffic Control that have come to light in the wake of Wednesday’s tragedy.
American Airlines tells The Post that flight 5210 experienced a simple redirect as part of standard operating procedure and that the event was nothing out of the ordinary.
The FAA did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
