Kite ‘Briefly Confiscated’ After Hitting Passenger Plane at DC Airport

A kite struck a low-flying United Airlines passenger jet as it descended into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Saturday.

No one was hurt in the incident, but authorities did briefly confiscate a kite, NBC News reported. About 10 kites were being flown near Gravelly Point when the plane hit one of them. Kite flying in the area is banned because of low-flying planes.

“One kite got progressively higher and higher,” Jamie Larounis, a travel analyst who witnessed the incident, told NBC News.

The plane was not damaged, and its 126 passengers were able to deplane without incident at around 4 p.m. EST Saturday.

The pilots of the aircraft reported to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department that the kite was about 100 feet in the air and was directly in their flight path, according to CBS News.

“There was a kite that looked a little higher than it should be; we thought it might just be a perspective thing from where we were standing, but, lo and behold, as the plane got a little bit closer, it came into contact with the kite,” said Dylan Oakes, a producer with WUSA 9, CBS affiliate in Washington D.C.

CBS reported that the kite was briefly confiscated but later returned to the owner. No charges were filed related to the incident.