On September 14, 2024 the annual plane pull at Dulles Airport took place. Over 10 thousand people attended with over 80 teams participating in the plane pull. The event is divided into two parts. There is the aerospace show where pilots from all over the DMV area fly their planes into the Dulles Airport and put them on display, sometimes even allowing people to sit inside the plane and see what it feels like to be a pilot. The other part of the plane pull is where the teams actually pull the plane. This year the plane was an 82 ton FedEx plane that teams with numbers anywhere from 10 to 25 people, says the official Dulles Plane Pull website.
At an entrance fee of $5,000 per team the spirit was unmatched as people donated all throughout the event for the Special Olympics Virginia and other special sports organizations. As each team stepped up to the plate to try and haul the 82 ton plane the matching outfits and the equally in sync spirit to help a good cause was clearly evident.
In the 2024 Dulles Day Plane Pull raised approximately $580,000 total, reports the Gazette Leader. This event brought people from all backgrounds and all areas to the event. With people from places like West Virginia or anywhere in the DMV the community was brought together by the charitable event.
On display there were planes from eras like World War II, the current Marine and Coast Guard Planes, helicopters used by the police, and a variety of other aircrafts. Along with the vast amount of aerospace technologies present there was a car show with impressive cars of all kinds.
These planes led people, like Vishika Baskaran, a sophomore at John Champe High School, to be inspired. She said, “This event let me acknowledge all the job opportunities in the aerospace field that I hadn’t considered before.”
Booths were set up to recruit people with like interests into fun activities, others aimed to inform people of how to be safer, some set out to give people a fun time of dunking cops or getting free stuff, but all of them worked together to inspire people to help a good cause and make a change however they could. Baskaran says, “I was even inspired to join the marines after talking to the recruiting sergeant.”
