BREAKING: Pilot of American Airlines flight 5342 told at last minute to change runways to #33

https://archive.is/LHeVr#selection-791.12-918.0

American Airlines Flight 5342, which was en route to Washington from Wichita, Kan., 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 like 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 National Airport, one of the nation’s busiest, 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 F.A.A. has sought to eliminate or close in recent years in places like Chicago and Dallas because of concerns about congestion on the ground.