Airlines tend to be superstitious. This shows itself in various ways, such as many operators not having row 13 (which some consider unlucky) or flight number 666 (the so-called devil's number).
As you know, on January 29, a PSA-operated CRJ700—operating for American Eagle for American Airlines —was involved in an airborne collision with a military helicopter while on final approach to Washington Reagan.
There are no survivors. The media and others should exercise caution in speculating about potential reasons for the occurrence.
Given the tragedy, the flight number from Kansas back to the Virginia airport, close to downtown D.C., has been changed. While it was AA5342, it will now be AA5677, effective January 31.
It is not this straightforward. American's website and elsewhere show that it will revert to AA5342 on February 6, as shown below, which is expected to exist through February 12. However, this may be updated. The original plan, which is still in place, is for the departure to adopt AA5574 on February 13.
American Eagle has operated Reagan-Wichita since January 8, 2024. Until then, the 965 nautical mile (1,787 km) route, too short to be included in the country's longest regional jet route list, had not been flown since America West ended it in 1991.
The Wichita-Reagan direction has used 11 flight numbers in the past year, even if only once. In order of use, they are AA3701, AA5527, AA5342, AA4311, AA5500, AA5591, AA5590, AA5574, AA5677, AA4699, and AA5083.
While an undeniably morbid subject, examples abound of airlines changing flight numbers following a fatal accident or incident, although this may not be immediate or even quick.
The longer the period from occurrence to change, the less obvious it is that it was in response to the tragedy.
Only a few examples will be provided here, with confirmation through examining schedules using Cirium Diio data.
The most obvious relate to September 11, 2001. American has not used AA11 or AA77 since then, and United has not used UA93 or UA175.
The same applies to AA587 (American's A300-600 accident in November 2001), Alaska Airlines AS261 (January 2000), DL5191 (Comair operating as Delta Connection in August 2006), Southwest WN1380 (April 2018), and many more.
Another example includes Continental Connection flight CO3407 from Newark to Boston, with the fatal accident occurring on February 12, 2009. It was aboard a Colgan Air Dash 8 Q400, registered N200WQ (shown below).
Like Colgan, Continental no longer exists. Nonetheless, Cirium Diio data shows that flight 3407 was last used on February 20, 2009.
Continental did not use it again. However, United used it (albeit briefly) from Ottawa back to Chicago O'Hare in 2011.
