The police confiscated a kite on Saturday after it was flown near airplanes landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, according to the airport police, and after a witness said he saw it make contact with a landing plane. United Airlines said that it “was aware of reports” that a kite had been in the path of Flight 654 from Houston. “The aircraft landed safely, customers deplaned normally and upon inspection there was no damage to the aircraft,” United said. Officers with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department received reports on Saturday of a kite flying at Gravelly Point, a park just north of an airport runway, Emily McGee, a spokeswoman for the department, said on Sunday. Gravelly Point is a part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and is overseen by the National Park Service. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Kite flying is barred at the park because of the low-flying aircraft in the area. Officers “briefly confiscated” a kite on Saturday, McGee said. “That kite was returned to its owner shortly later, and no charges were filed,” McGee said. It was not immediately known how high the kite was flying or what kind of kite was confiscated. The FAA said on Sunday that it did not have a report about the kite. Jamie Larounis, a travel industry analyst, said in an interview on Sunday that he had reported the kite to the airport police after seeing it make contact with the plane on Saturday while he was walking home from the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington.<br/>
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US investigators have determined that two passengers on board a United Boeing 757-200 suffered bone fractures after the crew responded to a conflict alert with an ”abrupt” pitch input. Two cabin crew also received minor injuries during the incident, says the National Transportation Safety Board. The aircraft had been operating from Newark to San Francisco on 19 September last year. According to the first officer, who was flying, the captain switched on the ‘fasten seatbelt’ sign near the top of descent in preparation for the possibility of having to descend quickly, because the crew was still awaiting clearance to a lower altitude. After descending and levelling at 32,000ft the jet was then cleared to 31,000ft but, since the flight was above the desired vertical flightpath, the first officer increased the descent rate using ‘flight-level change’ mode. About 500ft above the assigned altitude, the crew received a traffic advisory from the collision-avoidance system. The advisory related to an aircraft crossing 1,500ft below the 757. As the first officer adjusted the descent rate by switching to ‘vertical speed’ mode, the traffic advisory upgraded to a resolution advisory – an instruction to take avoiding action. According to the captain’s testimony to the safety board, “the startle factor in the [resolution advisory] was extremely high because of how fast it occurred [after the initial traffic alert]”. The first officer responded by disengaging the autopilot and autothrottle, and pitching the aircraft nose-up using guidance on the primary flight display. Story has further details.<br/>