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Comment by fh973 | Hacker News Reader

Actually no. The fact that to the left was a restricted airspace (that the pilot must be aware of) disambiguates the instructions already. Obviously the pilot did not do their flight preparation, was it includes being familiar with any airspace restrictions.

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Also. I'm looking at a chart of the DC airspace. P-56, the restricted airspace containing the White House, is not on any rivers. If you are following the river (left, right, doesn't matter) then you are not getting into P-56. If you are oscillating around the river then yeah, you are going to have a bad time.

Also, I'm looking at all the runways at this airport. They all have one obvious direction which way you should be following the river. Just from the angle your flightpath would be crossing the river.

If you take off northbound, you only have a few seconds to turn left with the river before you’re over DC and into restricted airspace. If you take off and obliviously fly straight, it’s too late. It’s not a wide river.

Once you’re across the river, turning left is way worse (takes you directly over the federal complex), so ATC told them to turn right to exit the restricted airspace. That would take them around over SE DC.

Yeah. No joke. it is even on the departure chart: "Departing Rwy 1 requires expeditious intercept of outbound course to ensure avoidance of P-56 boundary"

Taking off north-bound (runway 1) wouldn't give you the option of flying up the Anacostia (the right spur that bisects DC when looking at a standard map).

Taking of north-east (runway 4) would give you the option of taking the Potomac (left) or Anacostia (right).

I've never seen runway 4 used. It's usually a north flow using 1.

From the description they took off from 18 (now 19 due to pole drift) it sounds like they might have taken a left basically immediately off the runway which would put them pointed pretty directly at the restricted airspace around the Capital and White House. It is odd they'd be there though considering the story says the check for the river on reaching 1500 which even at best climb would be around two minutes after take off which should be well past the river.

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