BATON ROUGE -- As recovery efforts continue after Wednesday night's plane crash in Washington D.C., WBRZ spoke with one Baton Rouge pilot who's made that flight into D.C. many times before.

Tom Landry was a pilot in the Air Force for six years and an instructor pilot for a little over three years. He then became a pilot for American Airlines, flying for them for 33 years, 25 of which was as a captain. He says he now flies corporate in Baton Rouge.

Landry told WBRZ about one of the primary approved routes into Reagan National Airport. It involves flying over the center of the Potomac River, as D.C. has many restricted and prohibited airspaces being the nation's capital.

Because of the shorter length of Reagan Airport's runways, over 90% of flights use its main runway.

"The fact that it's a short runway, I think it's 5,200 feet. Most jets require a minimum of 5,000 feet, so you're just barely over the bare minimums for that jet to land on," Landry said.

American Airlines flight 5342 was diverted to runway 33, which is much shorter.

"What they did is not a very common maneuver for airlines. It's usually for turboprops and small commuters because the runway is so much shorter, and they're making pretty good turns close to the ground, and that's common with Washington D.C.," Landry said.

According to Flight Aware, the last recorded altitude of the plane was around 400 feet. Landry says when you're that low and close to the airport, the pilot is not looking to his sides.

"You're focusing totally on finding that runway, lining up, and you're gonna be touching down within seconds," Landry said.

Landry also talked about a piece of technology that is required to be aboard all commercial airlines, the Terminal Collision and Avoidance System.

"It will let us know if there's any aircraft within the proximity of you, where it's at and the altitude above or below you, and any trends, whether it's climbing or descending," Landry said.

However, he said the lower you are, the less you'd rely on that system since you're so close to the ground.

"The commuter airplane that was out there and all airlines below 500 feet, the RA, the resolution authority is inhibited so it can't tell you what to do, the TA will advise you if there's somebody out there, that you don't know," Landry said.