WOIFM

Open Reagan

Sean thinks we should re-open the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. I agree.

The airport has remained closed primarily because it is too close to D.C. to be considered safe by some in the administration. But I think that re-opening Reagan National Airport is no more dangerous than re-opening Dulles or BWI. The irony, after all, is that the Flight 77 that returned to hit the Pentagon came not from Reagan National but from Dulles.

In order to pose a similar threat, flights using DCA (the FAA's designation for Reagan National Airport) would have to be under control of a hostile pilot - in other words, hijacked again. Clearly, flights departing DCA pose little to no risk over that of flights leaving any other airport in the region. A hijacker would need at least a few minutes to take control of the plane, probably more now that before Sept. 11, and in those few minutes, the flight would have passed far outside the immediate danger zone. Also, because flights departing DCA are shorter flights, they have less fuel on board, making them less useful to hijackers as tools of destruction.

Arriving flights are a different story. They could, in theory, be captured by hijackers before arrival, veer off at the last minute, and hit targets close by, like the White House, Capitol, or the Pentagon. The way to make flight arrival at DCA safe, then, is to ensure that arriving flights are under control of the pilot at all times during approach. It would not be difficult, for example, to have the pilot provide "all clear" codes during the approach. Any flight which fails to prove itself under friendly control would be treated as hostile and would not be permitted to enter the airspace. If the pilot cannot provide a code for any reason, the flight should be diverted to Dulles, where there are few potential targets nearby.

Not hard to do. Let's get on it.