All flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were brought to a halt for at least 20 minutes on Wednesday night after two pilots reported seeing a drone or something near the active runway.
The first pilot, an American Airlines regional jet crew member arriving from Tulsa, told air traffic controllers at one of America’s most tightly controlled airports that he saw “a drone or something” flying roughly halfway down the runway during the plane’s approach.
At the same time, a second pilot, waiting to depart for New Jersey, also reported seeing a light that he believed could have been a drone or something.
The reports prompted an immediate warning to other aircraft and brought the flight operations to a standstill, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control recordings.
A search, however, yielded nothing, leaving authorities without a confirmed identification of the mysterious object. The FAA said local and federal authorities were notified.
The air traffic controller described the report as “unauthorized UAS activity” near DCA, with the object’s type and color unknown.
That wording is significant because authorities have not publicly confirmed what the object actually was although the pilots thought they had seen something that looks like a drone. There is also no evidence at this stage that the sighting was a UFO in the extraterrestrial sense.
The incident remains a reported unidentified object that pilots believed was a drone.
A dangerous place to spot one
The reported sightings occurred in some of the most restricted airspace in America. The FAA says Washington’s airspace is more restricted than that of any other part of the country.
A Special Flight Rules Area covered the Washington region, extending 30 miles around Reagan National. In the 15-mile inner ring, the rules, designed to protect aircraft and other critical government facilities, prohibits unmanned aircraft without specific FAA authorization.
Drones are extremely difficult for pilots to see and avoid, particularly during takeoff and landing. The FAA warns drone operators to avoid manned aircraft and are responsible for hazards their aircraft create around airports.
And Reagan National is an especially unforgiving place for an unidentified object to appear, with over 800 takeoffs and landings occur in the airport each day. More than 90 percent of flights are using its main runway. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority describes the airport as the busiest in America.
Airport still under scrutiny after deadly crash
The drone report comes as Reagan National remains under investigation after the January 2025 midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter where all 67 people aboard the two aircrafts perished.
In its final report, the National Transportation Safety Board said failures involving airspace design, safety oversight, risk management, and air traffic control contributed to the mid-air disaster.
During the 20-minute pause, authorities immediately searched for the reported object but nothing was found.
The two pilots believed they saw a drone. It could also be a UFO because in the literal sense of an unidentified flying object, either extraterrestrial or otherwise.
