A plane carrying several members of Congress was “bumped” by another plane on the runway of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday afternoon.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the minor crash, caused by American Airlines Flight 5490’s wingtip striking American Airlines Flight 4522 on a taxiway at the airport, the department said in a statement on the incident.
Republican Congressman Nick LaLota, of New York’s District 1, posted on the social media platform X that a plane bumped the wing of the one he was on. Rep. Grace Meng, a Democrat from the state’s District 6, was also aboard and posted a video from the airport saying the wing was being fixed. No one was hurt, they said.
New York Reps. Ritchie Torres and Adriano Espaillat and New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer were also on the plane, according to their social media posts.
Flight 4522 was en route to JFK International Airport, while Flight 5490 was headed to Charleston International Airport in South Carolina, the FAA said.
DCA’s crowded airspace has the been the subject of federal scrutiny after a fatal, midair crash of a passenger flight and military helicopter in January.
In March, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was “permanently restricting non-essential helicopter operations around DCA and eliminating helicopter and fixed-wing mixed traffic,” among several other changes recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board.
A recent fistfight among air traffic controllers at the airport has led to “crisis counseling and additional supervision” for those workers, the Associated Press reported last week.
Closer to some of the representatives’ home state of New York, a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon, according to the New York City Police Department.
The FAA said on its website the helicopter crashed and submerged in the New York City area of the river, but could not confirm the number of people aboard.
The New York Fire Department received a report saying the crash was on the New Jersey side of the river at 3:17 p.m. Rescue units are responding to the crash, the department said in an email.
The NTSB said it was still “gathering information” about both incidents at 4:26 p.m. Eastern.
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