The Tale of American Airlines Flight 1609

By one of the hostages on board the flight

Good Evening:

I was taken hostage today.

Not by Hamas.

Not by an airline hijacker.

But by an airline itself. American Airlines, to be precise.

It’s a strange tale—one involving what should have been the shortest commercial flight of my entire life, an unidentified VIP whose movement grounded my flight at the wrong airport, and some bad decisions by yours truly.

I regret nothing. What does not kill me makes me stronger.

I awoke this morning in Miami, where I was attending a conference. I was supposed to fly home on American Airlines Flight 1609 from Miami to Reagan National Airport, where my car awaited me in the parking lot across from the terminal.

I boarded the flight with two of my colleagues—the estimable Quinta Jurecic and the no-less-estimable Tom Wheeler. The flight took off after a short delay. I fell asleep, as I often do when planes take off.

I slept longer than I meant to. And when I awoke, we were just starting our descent into Reagan National Airport—or as us old-school DCers still call it, National. The descent seemed to take longer than usual.

A lot longer.

At some point, I realized that we were circling, in some kind of holding pattern. And we stayed in that holding pattern for quite a while.

To wit, until the plane ran out of fuel.

The pilot came on and announced that the plane had been put in a circling pattern because of a mysterious “VIP movement” in DC airspace. It had circled until fuel was too low to continue and now had to be diverted to Dulles airport because it had to land. Dulles is not far from National, but it’s not where my car was.

We landed at Dulles, about a 35 minute drive from National.

The flight had landed about an hour late and at the wrong airport, and this presented a certain problem. My car was at the National. I was at Dulles. And I had appointments downtown. It was 5:20 pm. The pilot announced that the passengers could get off at Dulles, but that the plane would refuel and fly on to National.

My two estimable colleagues got off, which was the right call.

I, however, made a different choice. My car, after all, was at National, so I had to end up there. It was rush hour. The traffic might be dreadful. And the flight time from one airport in the Washington metro area to another would be brief.

Besides, I reasoned, how often do you get to take a commercial flight within a single metropolitan area? How often do you get to fly from IAD to DCA? It was actually a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I could film the entire flight, I thought. The prospect excited me. I would make a video of the shortest commercial flight of my life and narrate this whole story for #DogShirtDaily.

So I stayed on the plane. And that is how I became a hostage.

The flight crew closed the doors. We pushed back from the gate for a flight that was to take all of 10 minutes. I held my cell phone in my hand to shoot the video. I mean, this was why God had invented cell phone cameras, right?

We sat on the tarmac for two hours without taking off for the 10 minute flight.

Eventually, the flight was cancelled. The pilots had apparently exceeded their lawful consecutive work hours sitting in the cockpit. We limped back to the gate at 8:41 pm.

The hostages were freed—still at the wrong airport. This time we all got off the plane. A toddler hostage said to her hostage father as they were getting off, “That was not so much fun.”

As of this writing, Flight 1609 has still not taken off for the 10 minute flight:

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Today on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Eve Gaumond and I welcomed the estimable Jonathan Rauch, who had some thoughts to share about the Supreme Court. It’s a revolution in morning television, so when Jonathan has some thoughts about SCOTUS, he just shows up and we discuss. We talked about what the Court should look like, what it does look like, and where it might take us next.

Also, the estimable Anastasiia Lapatina has brought her extremely estimable baby Ava all the way to DC to launch Lawfare’s new podcast series, Escalation:

Register for the launch event here. It’s a great podcast, and there’s a baby. What’s not to like?

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Today On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett

The Rise and Fall of America’s Response to Foreign Election Meddling

Renee DiResta and Quinta Jurecic discuss the Trump administration’s overtly political campaign to dismantle guardrails against foreign interference in American politics, as well as the underlying false narrative of “deep state censors” promulgated by President Donald Trump:

Amidst the chaos of the current moment—a slew of executive actions, an ever-mounting pile of temporary restraining orders and injunctions in response, and the single-handed dismantling of agencies created by Congress—this story has received relatively little attention. But it’s worth watching closely. This rollback not only weakens America’s defenses, but telegraphs to U.S. adversaries that the country’s current leadership prioritizes appeasing a political base—one that it taught to dismiss foreign interference as a hoax—over protecting the country from real and ongoing threats. As in other policy areas, state capacity is now determined in response to conspiracy theories on X.

A Primer on Reductions in Force

Nick Bednar explains the complex regulations governing reductions in force (RIF), a mechanism by which Trump seeks to reduce the federal workforce. Bednar highlights the intricacies of the process—in which employees compete for positions that were not cut—and the consequences it can have on agencies, including lower morale and the loss of young talent:

It’s worth starting with a 30,000-foot summary of this process. The agency begins by selecting the number and type of positions to release. The initial focus of the RIF is on positions rather than individual employees. Once the agency has determined the scope of the RIF, it orders employees according to a formula that considers tenure, preference eligibility, length of service, and performance. Then the agency begins to release individuals from their positions starting from the bottom of the retention list. During this process, higher-ranked employees may be reassigned to positions occupied by lower-ranked employees.

Ukraine: The Past, Present, and Future of Russian Disinformation

Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren detail the process by which Russia creates and disseminates disinformation about Ukraine and the success they have eroding the United States’s support for Ukraine:

While we can’t know for sure the real impact of Russia’s Storm-1516, there is no question that support for Ukraine’s war effort has slowly eroded, especially among conservative Americans. The reasons offered often mirror those given by Russian narratives (for instance, concern about the Zelenskyys’ integrity or about Ukraine’s worthiness). Storm-1516’s manipulation of the influencer economy has become one of Putin’s most reliable ways to lobby Washington. The more anger they can generate in the MAGA base, the more likely their campaign is to be successful. The more Russia can turn MAGA followers against Ukraine, the more likely Trump will be to support Putin’s goal: Abandon Ukraine.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Chris Mirasola joins Natalie Orpett to discuss his recent article for Lawfare on the legality of Trump’s plan to deploy the U.S. military to enforce the administration's immigration policies:

On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson sits down with Tyler McBrien, Roger Parloff, and Claire Meynial to discuss the week’s major national security news. They talk about Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, what the Department of Justice’s move to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams tells us about the administration’s use of prosecutions to advance a political agenda, and litigation over Trump’s ban on transgender service members:

Videos

On Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. ET, I will speak to Anna Bower and Parloff about the status of the civil litigation against President Trump’s executive actions, including the attempts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and the firing of probationary employees:

Documents

Caroline Cornett shares an executive order dismantling four “unnecessary government entities,” including the Inter-American Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace. The order also terminates the Presidential Management Fellows Program and several committees in various agencies.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay, nominated by the estimable Laura Donna, is this owl:

Laura tells us that today’s Beast:

apparently having dined earlier, ignored the taunting gestures of an endless parade of plausibly delicious prey. Not taking the bait! They scampered, they chattered, they flitted, they flaunted their plumpness, all to no avail. Though this was the first owl ever to stop by, I got bored when banging on the window and yelling ceased to yield new and dramatic performances. "I did the head turning thing, what else do you want?"

Be like today’s Beast. Ignore anyone who demands your attention. You are a Beast of dignity and self-respect. You need not perform for the entertainment of the masses. Let them chitter, let them scamper, let them bang on the window. Time will prove them fools, and make you eternal.