San Diego International Airport

Expert and pilot weigh in on San Diego's congested airspace after DC midair crash

The county is home to six military installations, including United States Coast Guard Sector San Diego that regularly flies Jayhawk helicopters out of their location across the street.

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The San Diego International Airport has been investigated more than once by the FAA for close calls between aircraft, all while pilots navigate commercial, private, and military traffic in the sky, reports NBC 7’S Dana Williams.

The San Diego International Airport (SAN) is the busiest single runway airport in the country, according to a spokesperson. Aside from passenger planes landing and taking off, the airspace in the area is made even more complicated by military aircraft, from one of the region’s several military installations, as well as private planes, cargo planes and more. 

“San Diego as well as Washington D.C. Reagan are very similar,” Hassan Shahidi, the president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, told NBC 7.

Shahidi shared that he is very familiar with the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and, just last week, landed on the same runway that American Eagle Flight 5342 was heading to before colliding with an Army Black Hawk helicopter. There are not expected to be any survivors.

“This is one that should have not happened,” Shahidi said. “It was absolutely preventable.”

Shahidi explained that the similarities between DCA and SAN are related to the complexity of the airspace, especially in close proximity to military bases.

“That’s important for everybody to understand that these are highly-trained individuals [flying military aircraft]. That said, these air spaces are highly complex, and given the complexity, there is little room for error,” Shahidi said. “The margin for error is zero.” 

San Diego County is home to six military installations, including United States Coast Guard Sector San Diego that regularly flies Jayhawk helicopters out of their location across the street from SAN and Naval Air Station North Island. 

“It goes from alpha, bravo, charlie, delta and echo, and then we also have golf. There’s no foxtrot,” Tania Rivers, a private pilot who flies out of Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport, told NBC 7 as she explained the different airspaces. “It is very busy, and I think that's an important factor pilots need to take into consideration is, when you're flying, it's not just about you and about your airplane.”

Rivers began flying in the sky above San Diego in 2019 and hopes to become a commercial airline pilot someday. She also served as the Board of Directors’ Secretary of the San Diego 99s. It is the world’s largest organization of women pilots, including those with both private and commercial experience.

“When you hear communications on the radio that are not necessarily intended for you, you need to be able to understand what is going on because it helps you get that mental picture of what is going on around you and avoid accidents or incidents in the sky,” Rivers continued. 

Unfortunately, when those communications break down is when tragedy could occur, and San Diego is no stranger to heartbreak. In 1978, while approaching the runway at SAN for landing, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 collided with a Cessna business jet and killed the 144 people on both planes and an additional seven people on the ground.

Since then, SAN has been investigated multiple times by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for incursions or close-calls. 

On Aug. 11, 2023, a Cessna business jet landed dangerously close to a Southwest Airlines plane that was waiting for takeoff on the runway. According to the FAA’s investigation report, the planes came within fewer than 50 feet of one another.

Despite this, both Shahidi and Rivers emphasized how safe air travel is and how rare these events are compared to the tens of thousands of uneventful flights each day across the country. 

“It’s very difficult for passengers to travel when and see this kind of news. They do, of course, have concerns and get worried, but we do have a safe air transportation system,” Shahidi said. “In 2024, we had a billion passengers fly in the U.S., four billion globally, by air.”

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