Exclusive: The FAA is evaluating risks to flights from Trump’s ‘triumphal arch’
By Sunlen Serfaty, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration has asked the FAA to evaluate the risks of building the president’s “triumphal arch” less than two miles from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, one of the busiest in the nation.
According to documents obtained by CNN, the Department of Interior has requested a formal aeronautical study from the Federal Aviation Administration for the proposed 250-foot arch, which would be built in a patch of grass at the end of Memorial Bridge, across from the Lincoln Memorial.
The request, submitted by the National Parks Service, a division of the Interior Department, notes that the total height of the structure will be 279 feet when the site elevation beneath the arch itself is considered.
FAA regulations require structures that exceed 200 feet and positioned at a site that potentially interferes with airspace be subject to a review. The FAA has said it aims to complete these types of reviews within 45 to 90 days – but they typically take far longer, up to nine months.
The FAA acknowledged that it had received the request and told CNN it had begun the study, but the agency declined to give a timeline for the review of the arch.
Pilots must already navigate various hazards as they descend or ascent through the “north approach” flight path that requires them to swing to avoid close encounters with the Pentagon, the Washington Monument and other DC landmarks.
The addition of President Donald Trump’s arch will further complicate flying through the corridor, which has been the site of high-profile and much scrutinized accidents, including last year’s midair collision between an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk helicopter and a 1982 crash into the 14th Street Bridge upon takeoff.
The airspace is extremely crowded, with more than 900 commercial flights departing and landing through to Reagan National Airport on Monday alone.
Plans for the structure are supposed to be approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, two government agencies that oversee federal building in Washington.
As with many projects Trump has proposed, such as the construction of a new ballroom at the White House and the renaming of the Kennedy Center, insiders fear that the panels, which the president has stacked with loyalists, will approve the arch with little regard of risks.
“I fear that regardless of any defects in the arch’s design, it will be rammed through by the government bodies that need to approve it,” a source close to the committees said.
The NCPC said it “regularly works with other agencies that have review roles to ensure that reviews are synchronized.”
“We would expect to follow the same approach here,” the committee told CNN, but said it does not yet have a specific timeline for the review.
CFA, which has already approved a preliminary set of designs for the arch, said it had received a revised concept for review at its meeting on May 21, but could not say whether “whether the Commission members will consider the issue raised by the FAA to affect the timing of their actions.”
Construction obstruction
Since Trump announced his vision for an arch in Washington that would help commemorate America’s 250th birthday, there have been concerns about its size, the impact on its surroundings and the speed with which he promised to build it.
He has previously told reporters that it should be “the biggest one of all” since the US is “the biggest, most powerful nation,” and in December he had said that he wanted construction to start within two months.
Typically, a request to the FAA to conduct an obstruction analysis is made 45 days prior to any construction starting. The president can move ahead with the project without final determination from the FAA.
The FAA’s Obstruction Evaluation Group will look at runway length, the airport elevation, the structure’s exact coordinates, ground elevation and whether temporary cranes to build the structure will exceed the permanent height, among other items.
They’ll consult with numerous other agencies and branches of the armed forces including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Army, Air Force and Navy.
The FAA will then issue a “Determination of No Hazard” or a “Determination of Hazard.”
If a hazard is determined, the administration will have 60 days to adjust the project – potentially make height reductions or hazard lightings to make it more visible to aircraft, among other tweaks to make it safer for aviation.
Asked about the evaluation, a White House official claimed that the arch will “have no effect on flights to and from Reagan National.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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