Plane crash in DC plane and chopper in Potomac River (Sadly there were NO survivors)

100 feet is NOT the cause of the crash. There is no world in which the helo and the plane are intended to cross within 100' of each other. the helo pilot never saw the plane.

fyi, tower data says 200', plane data says 300'

 

Yep, NTSB said they are working the discrepancy

 

You really should look into the qualifications of the Secretary of Defence, CinC, and DOGE leader if you are so into "merit", because your hypocrisy is deafening.

Two of them are not allowed to even participate in charities without ripping them off and all have barely been able to keep their dicks in their pants before impregnating women who aren't currently their wives.

When your qualifications for being President are "leading" (mismanaging) your country to a million COVID deaths and suggesting horse dewormers and bleach to solve it, you probably aren't better than the average guy on the street.

In fact you are an idiot offering simplistic solutions only a rube would buy, but Putin was proud of his boy!

A million dead in the US, and no nukes, bombs, or bullets used was a big win for him and China! He even got Elon involved to make sure it happens even worse the 2nd time around!

DEI indeed. It must stand for Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka.

 

Couldn't be the tower supervisor who let the other ATC go home who was supposed to manage the helicopters could it???

I think every air traffic controller in the nation should take Elon's buyout so we can get the REAL experts in handling air traffic - narcissistic, egotistical, unqualified, conspiracy-theorizing, barely-thinking white men in MAGA hats - in the seats.

While they argue about whether they are seeing JFK Jr.'s airplane flying by on radar or aliens landing to start the MAGA rapture, we can watch our airline industry implode and ground.

It's worth a try right?

 

roll the tape


sug·gest
/sə(ɡ)ˈjest/
verb

1. put forward for consideration.

 

I'm not a pilot so I have no idea how this works but .... what I have heard in several discussions as to the reason the Blackhawk was at 300' instead of at or below 200' .... was the pilots of the Blackhawk did not properly calibrate the altimeter. An improper calibration would result in the device telling the pilots they were at 200' when in fact they were at 300' or some other height.

 

Here's another discussion where a former Blackhawk pilot states that a change in barometric pressure could have impacted the altimeter reading


MSN

 

You gonna bring us every possibility, each brought forward by a person speculating? Next is some dude saying it was the propeller?

We already know why this happened: DEI

The criminal rapist liar you voted for already told us.

 

That could absolutely explain it. I am really confident we will find human error was the likely culprit. And it is possible the altimeter or something mechanical failed giving the Pilots a false belief about their position as well.

 

in the audio between the helo and the tower, the helo pilot says they have jet in sight and press for visual, ie, they see the plane and request permission to fly vfr, or visual flight rules, to maintain clear separation.

the jet they saw was the departing jet on on runway over and not the incoming aa flight on the runway closest to them

they would need to go right and up to behind the departing jet and avoid any jet wash. that explains why they were outside the flight path to the right and put them directly into the incoming AA jet.

the helo pilot misidentified the traffic that tower told them about.

a system that is 100% reliant on that one safety factor (I see it and I promise to avoid it) isn't a good system

 

Problems with helicopters and airliners at DCA aren't new. The collision last week was a tragedy waiting to happen. Through the grace of G-d and the skill of airline pilots it's a miracle that a collision didn't happen sooner.
National Airport has long struggled to manage helicopter traffic, records show
Almost 40 years ago:
On a fall afternoon, a Boeing passenger jet had just been cleared for takeoff at Reagan National Airport when the pilot saw a Bell helicopter lift off in a direction that would cross the plane’s path. The airplane pilot aborted the takeoff, overrunning the runway before coming to a stop on a grassy strip just 130 feet from the Potomac River.

Robin Dillon-Merrill, a professor at Georgetown University who has studied near-collision aviation incidents, pointed to the abundance of such cases. “If the data is there, why don’t people do something about it?” she said, before answering her question. The more people accomplish a risky maneuver successfully, she said, the less they worry. She summed up the attitude as: “We know that we can operate with less traffic controllers because we did it last week and we got away with it.”

In fact there is actually a history of helicopters in the vicinity of DCA flying where they shouldn't.
The FAA is aware that helicopter operators do not always follow prescribed routes and zones during flights, a practice that could compromise safety, according to a 2021 report by the Government Accountability Office. However, the agency does not track how often this may occur because of the technical challenges associated with conducting such an analysis, the report said.

My guess is that when all is said and it done the NTSB will make two recommendations. First, that helicopter traffic in the vicinity of DCA be seriously limited to flights that are absolutely necessary and secondly that the tower at DCA be fully staffed with qualified air traffic controller. Tragically it took a collision in which 67 people lost their lives before an obviously dangerous situation will be remedied.

 

You’re committed the cardinal sin by enabling the leftists to hijack the thread.

 

“Leftists” = people who actually can read in this case

 

The FAA may have wanted more minority air traffic controllers but they would still have to be admitted to FAA's academy in Oklahoma City and admission requires a satisfactory score on an aptitude test. There is no discretion, it's either pass or fail and if I recall roughly 50% of applicants fail to make the grade. Similarly, there is a significant washout rate at the academy and again whether an ATC student completes the course at the academy is performance based, it's not discretionary and finally only the most competent controllers are assigned to airports like DCA. By the way the same applies to airline pilots. Before an airline in the US even bothers to interview an applicant for a position as a pilot he or she has to have a minimum of 1,500 hours and an airline transport rating.

 

Please stay on topic. This is a thread discussing the first mid-air collision of two aircraft in the United States since 1986.

 

It is absolutely anti American if true we looked to race in order to fill positions. That is as racist a policy as you can have. We should be looking to qualified candidates that want the job. Race should never be a factor. Competency should be.

***just addressing your initial remarks and not putting anything toward what recently happened***

 

Please feel free to use the scroll button to see if this topic was initiated by me.

 

Race may be a factor in recruiting. It has never been a factor in actually selecting applicants for positions as air traffic controllers or as airline pilots for that matter. Competency is the only factor in selecting applicants for those positions.

 

Unlike you I do not take a tweet (still using the term) from a poster hiding behind a screen name with apparently no technical background and no direct knowledge seriously.