Approach/Landing Washington, DCA River Visual Runway 19

"Welcome to Pittsburgh" - after a delayed departure from ORD, holding pattern due to thunderstorms, then diverting to RIChmond for fuel and wait out a tornado watch, our flight lands three hours late - then has to wait 45 minutes for a gate.

The Runway Visual Approach follows the Potomac River. Pilots must carefully fly the procedure to avoid the Prohibited Areas of the Naval Observatory and DC Mall, making for low-level maneuvering to landing.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Approach/Landing
• Washington
• DCA
• River
• Visual
• Runway
• 19

[captainpicard321]

I was on a flight (albeit it was Delta, not American) where once we landed at DCA, we had to wait 25 min. in front of the gate for a ground crew to assemble to allow us to finish taxiing and deplane at the gate!!

[BIMMERKID2]

Probably because they ran out of fuel/went below the Minimums, thus needed to land to refuel due to being in holding for too long.

[Winaska]

why in the world would you refuel in Richmond? i am confused where did this flight originate and arrive?

[n9323k]

It's an MD80. Near the end, 03:55 - "We hope to see you again on another American Airlines flight." The whimsical reference to Pittsburgh was because we had flown all over the place - holding over Roanoke then diverting to Richmond - before finally arriving at DCA.

[CRENpolitics]

US Airways doesn't fly any MD-80 (assuming this flight was US Airways because their focus cities are both PIT, and DCA.) probably a CRJ-200 or Embraer 175.

[YxJames]

Is A/C MD-80