I live near DCA and just heard a couple F16s fly over, which i never usually do. I checked f/a and saw this airtran and its very abnormal flight path. its not the typical river/mt. vernon visual apprch. in fact, the approach follows no procedure that I know of–clearly over restricted airspace (i believe to FL140).
flightaware.com/live/flight/TRS1 … /KATL/KDCA
im wondering if the f16s were dispached b/c the flight was over restricted airspace or vice versa
Vice-versa? You’re probably right. The Airtran flight was probably dispatched because the F-16’s were over restricted airspace.
well they couldve at least dispached a delta 757. these military cutbacks are getting out of hand
Now that is funny!
sorry gang–i forgot tomorrow is veterans day. they were probably practicing for some related event.
so i guess the gov’t is even going to low cost carriers now. sheesh…
Here’s the path of the approach:
I work in NW DC and watch air traffic from our building’s rooftop. I often see planes approaching from the south take a similar route to make the River Visual approach, but I think the ones I see are farther out to the east - outside of the District’s boundaries. Yeah, this looks a bit unusual, but still they were outside of the prohibited areas which are pretty much dead-smack in center of what would be the diamond shape of DC - just north of the airport.
I didn’t see either the AirTran flight or the F-16s, but I imagine the two events are unrelated.
F-16s couldn’t scramble fast enough to catch such a deviation.
100+ mile deviation wasn’t enough time to scramble F16s 
ha, i overreacted after hearing something louder than the usual MD80s taking off. agree, that approach usually has much longer “legs”
thanks
Here’s the path of a typical flight I see circling around the east to the north of DC. The AirTran flight was just a little inside the boundaries of the city limits, but not by much. This flight skirted right along the NE line.
yeah, im used to seeing that approach being directed from the south. its not too common to see those final legs so tight. depends on traffic flow i suppose
also im seeing f/a listing flights from/to ORD on american eagle now? thats new? more MD80s i say! at least NWA is bringing in some of their smokey old DC9s!
even saw the usair shuttle in rare, PSA livery yesterday. good times