airtraffic

Author Topic: KDCA - Army Ten-Miler race at Pentagon - DCA halted for Para Drop & Flyby  (Read 250 times)

Offline baldiedc

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Sunday 10/13/24 - AUSA Army Ten-Miler kick-off events at the Pentagon halted DCA for about 30 minutes in the 1100Z hour (departures stopped ~1110Z - 1141Z) for Golden Knights parachute drop (drop plane GKA264) followed by flyby of 4xUH60 Blackhawks (callsign PAT-21) from Davison Army Airfield.

Several arrivals were delayed on final, particularly bad luck for JIA5261 from Dayton OH that just missed getting into DCA, landing clearance cancelled around 1114Z and didn't land at DCA until around 1150Z.

Also an early POTUS VIP movement in the same hour but they used motorcade to ADW rather than Marine One presumably due to these conflicts, with USPP Eagle 2 providing air support.

Lots of coordination on 3 different frequencies, sharing this mashup between:
- Departure/TYSON sector (communicating with GKA264 throughout, and PAT21 initially)
- Final Approach (giving delay vectors to multiple planes including JIA5261 highlighted here)
- DCA Tower/Heli (with some banter from the hold bay)

Edited for time but retained sequence of comms.  Elapsed time is from 1100Z with GKA264 coordinating movements with Departure, thru 1140Z after the flyby and just before departures restart at DCA.  Enjoy!