Hi Scott,
Good to hear from you. I am fairly familiar with the flight restrictions you mentioned, especially the scrambling of the Air Force escorting of smaller private aircraft that venture into the no fly zone between the monuments, the Capital and the White house. Beyond me how a few managed to land their private small aircrafts on the White House lawn.
The approaching flight path (pictured) that day (as it is on many days) was such that commercial airlines approach National Airport from the west and make a fairly abrupt right turn just south of (a ways in front of) the Washington monument, which can seen in the distance. It at that point, the airline quickly loses altitude as it approaches the runway, which is just in front of the line of sight of that jet. Within 20-30 seconds, he was on the ground. Sometimes during busy arrival times, jets follow this approach route every 90-120 seconds, one after the other.
Alternatively when winds prevail from the opposite direction, incoming flights approach from a very different direction, approaching the airport from the south (as they fly into a landing pattern heading north). In the 1st case described (approaching from the west), pilots altitude is so low over that open space park (shown) which in summer months is extremely crowded with those having picnics, cyclists and tourists, the pilots and/or supporting crew and passengers wave out to bystanders.
Takeoffs for a given day are in the exact opposite direction of that days approaching flights. I mention this as one tragic day, an Air Florida flight in 1982 when the pilot apparently didn't go back to the gate for more de-icing (he said it was a losing battle)...and didn't even turn on his de-icers, quickly lost altitude immediately after taking off in snow/ice storm conditions and crashed into the bridge over the Potomac River, which shown in the rear portion of my image. Many lives were unfortunately lost that day.
On a happier note, passengers who are lucky enough sitting on the left side of the aircraft when it approaches from the west and makes that abrupt right hand turn towards the south as it quickly loses altitude for preparation for landing, have a spectacular view of the entire Wash. D.C. historic area, especially at dusk. It's quite a visual.
Dave (D&A)
L1001133 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D 28/2.8
L1001081 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr
L1001442 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr M10-D 28 asph
L1001445 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr
