‘How did this happen:’ DC residents mystified after American Airlines crash
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia ‒ Almost every morning, Sonya Washington feeds the seagulls and ducks that gather near Founders Park along the Potomac River to calm her anxiety. She typically loves to hear the near-constant buzzing of planes taking off and landing at the nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
On Thursday, those sounds were replaced with silence and “numbness,” Washington said. Unease seemed pervasive among the passers-by walking near the Old Town Harbor.
Washington and countless others in the D.C.-area awoke Thursday morning to news that a military helicopter had collided with a commercial jet above the airport, killing all 64 people on the airliner and three helicopter crew members.
She immediately phoned family in Kansas, where the American Airlines flight had taken off, to make sure they were safe.
After the initial fear, other emotions set in: shock, bewilderment and a nagging question. How could this happen?
Shock and confusion
Those who live just across the river from Washington, D.C. in the suburbs of Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia, are all too used to hearing the rumbling noises of planes descending into the airport, along with the house-shaking vibrations of military helicopters flying between local bases.
Plane-spotting is even a popular hobby among locals, who picnic and throw Frisbees at Gravelly Point Park, a grassy expanse just a few hundred feet from the airport’s runways.
Miranda Burris, a 30-year-old who has lived in the area for several years, told Paste BN that the frequency with which aircrafts pass one another is what makes this disaster so confounding – and terrifying.
“I walk here every day. I see helicopters going around. I see planes coming in like crazy. I never thought that would happen,” Burris, a medical technician, said. “Next time I fly, I'll definitely be thinking about that.”
Larry Hirsch, 70, watched from his bedroom window on Wednesday night as a flood of emergency lights began to flank the sides of the Potomac River. As he walked through Founders Park with his dog, Archie, on Thursday morning, Hirsch said the crash brought back memories of the Air Florida plane that hit the 14th Street Bridge between D.C. and Virginia in 1982.
The only difference was, at least a few people survived that crash, Hirsch said.
Questions abound
Down the road, a fire rescue crew from Prince William County, Virginia was boarding a boat at the Founders Point Marina around 10:30 a.m. to relieve coworkers who had searched waters through the early morning. Darius Marand, an Alexandria Parks and Recreation officer, stood nearby to assist. He said the city planned to keep all of its piers closed to the public for several days in case bodies or debris from the two aircrafts washed up.
An Army veteran who served six tours in Afghanistan and two in Iraq, Marand was also struggling to wrap his head around the hows and whys of the disaster. He’d flown in Black Hawk helicopters before and had lived in the D.C. area for most of his life. The tragedy hit close to home.
“I just don't understand [why they would have] military helicopters flying in the same airspace as the glide path through the airplanes,” he said.
Fear of less friendly skies
Several others wandering along the water on Thursday expressed apprehension about the safety of air travel, despite reassurances Thursday from the new U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to Americans that the United States has the "most safe and secure airspace in the world."
Jessica Ohaver, a program manager with the Marines, had talked about the crash all morning with her partner, Jimmy Babcock, who was visiting from Washington State.
“It brings back, you know, memories of, you know, past crashes that have happened that are so devastating, but it hits harder because it's local,” Ohaver, 43, said. “It's devastating anywhere. It's a tragedy. But here, it's my airport.”
Babcock plans to fly home on Sunday and said he isn't concerned about the flight’s safety. Ohaver found it harder to contain her nerves.
“You’re scared for your loved ones, and you feel for the families that that are now just absolutely devastated,” Ohaver said. “It’s terrible.”