American Airlines retires flight number, resumes Wichita route after deadly crash in DC
Friday evening, another American Airlines plane will take off from Wichita to Washington, D.C. But it won’t be flight No. 5342.
That’s because American Airlines has retired that number after the deadly plane crash in Washington, D.C., said Jesse Romo, Wichita’s director of airports. But on Friday, Wednesday’s flight information was still on the departure screens at Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport.
“It’ll be on the board until [it’s] updated, because it’s just the way the data is fed into these systems,” Romo said.
The new Wichita to D.C. flight number is 5677. As of 4:30 p.m., AA5677 was scheduled to take off at 8:18 p.m., more than two hours delayed.
American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita to DC crashed into an army helicopter in its descent into Reagan National Airport on Wednesday, plunging into Potomac River. Everyone on board died, including members of the U.S. Figure Skating community who were on their way back from a camp in conjunction with the national championships in Wichita last weekend.
But just because there’s a new flight number doesn’t mean reminders of what happened on Wednesday are gone. As travelers walk into Wichita’s airport, they may notice a table of flowers and notes set up to honor the victims of the crash.
The table was set up by airport staff shortly after the news of the crash broke.
“We started getting a lot of calls and outreach from people saying, ‘Hey, what do you need? What can we do to provide?’” Romo said.
“Other folks started sending flowers and said, ‘Well, where’s a good place to put them?’ We don’t want them in our office and hidden from view. And they don’t have a space on our ticket counters. So let’s set up a display for them.”
Romo said the display table will be up for the next couple of weeks. Two new tables were added to the initial one Friday.
“We’ve definitely seen the unity in the community that was on full display yesterday,” Romo said. “It’s representative of what we see going on here, people from all different backgrounds and all levels coming together to mourn that loss.
“And a lot of folks too, they don’t even know who necessarily was on the aircraft, but they just they feel the connection to the community.”
