Commercial Flight Collides with Helicopter Over Potomac

[CQB27]

of all the things I'm an expert on.. air traffic control and piloting aircrafts are not one of them so I will be offering no retarded opinions on this one.

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I wouldn't let that get in your way, it sure ain't stopping anybody else.

 

[Plinker66]

Internet now says FAA has announced that ATC tower was seriously understaffed:

“The preliminary crash report detailed that the lack of staff meant the controller monitoring and directing helicopters near DCA was also instructing planes landing and departing on the runways.

Usually, two controllers would handle these roles, as staff use two different radio frequencies to talk to planes and helicopter pilots.”

 

[BHPSteel]

Internet now says FAA has announced that ATC tower was seriously understaffed.

I suspect that we'll find that this was what commonly gets called a "perfect storm" but is actually a coincident set of negligent oversights.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1885101322849935777

 

[OttoMan]

I wonder, as I have heard of pilot bravado and over-confidence before… did the Helo pilot believe, he could get through that “intersection” before the commercial flight and he miscalculated?

Do military flight crews also defer to the pilot alone, or is their flying and awareness a team effort (?) i.e., would anyone within that crew speak up if they knew the pilot was “ racing” the airliner?

That kinda flying will get your wings clipped, and it did.

I have to throw this question out:
What was the faith of the Pilot? (Military Helicopter - Remember the 2009 Fort Hood guy?)
Also, which political view he had?

I have watched the video so many times and what pops in my mind is just "seems that was a suicidal flight." 🥺😢🥺

 

[keith089]

I have to throw this question out:
What was the faith of the Pilot? (Military Helicopter - Remember the 2009 Fort Hood guy?)
Also, which political view he had?

I have watched the video so many times and what pops in my mind is just "seems that was a suicidal flight." 🥺😢🥺

Crossed my mind, I said something smells

 

[OttoMan]

Crossed my mind, I said something smells

Brother, you are a pilot and served so many years... My son is an APACHE Pilot and he always tells me, how are the procedures of the entire flight. Either the Pilot or the co-pilot saw the entire thing, and just kept on going, that's what I believe. The FAA and the Army won't ever say anything if this is true!!!

 

[keith089]

Not a pilot. I worked for a living…lol
Hopefully all the the questions will be answered, families deserve no less
Apaches sit in tandem. Whiskey60s are side by side, and the CC would be on the gun or the lick window

 

[Torn]

Internet now says FAA has announced that ATC tower was seriously understaffed:

“The preliminary crash report detailed that the lack of staff meant the controller monitoring and directing helicopters near DCA was also instructing planes landing and departing on the runways.

Usually, two controllers would handle these roles, as staff use two different radio frequencies to talk to planes and helicopter pilots.”

It was and still is common to combine positions when traffic was slow or the shift was short staffed. The problem comes in when the person that can barely work one position alone is required to work two. They lowered the standards for certification so more minorities could get certified and these controllers, who would have never been hired must less certified prior to 2008, are hanging on by their fingernails during normal traffic times and they get swamped when there is weather or things go sideways.

The cancer has been in the system for 17 years and it has spread so that short of radical surgery (firing every DEI hire) the flying public is stuck with them. (Elections have consequences) The FAA was hoping TCAS, ADSB, AMASS (technology) would be the safe guard for pilots and controllers mistakes but sooner or later technology can’t correct everything especially poor decisions by pilots and controllers.

 

[rbstern]

from X
Spoke to someone who served in the same unit as the Army Black Hawk crew, knew them personally, and flew those routes. He made the following points:1) That it was a training flight was not unusual at all. Those flights are flown everyday.2) The co-pilot was going through her annual evaluation for night flying. Night vision goggles can magnify light, making it easier to confuse aircraft lights with ground lights.3) Runway 33 -- where Air Traffic Control told the passenger jet (CRJ) to land -- is "rarely used." This person said in his four years, he saw it being used 10 times. It is a much shorter runway than the main one used, which is Runway 1.4) The Black Hawk appeared to confuse the passenger jet with another plane landing at Runway 1 — which is why the pilot-in-command confirmed seeing the CRJ and requesting “visual separation,” or essentially saying he would avoid it.5) The CRJ was circling to land and making a left turn at the time. The Black Hawk was in its blind spot.6) The crew was experienced: The instructor pilot had just under 1,000 flying hours. He was former Navy. The co-pilot had around 500 hours, and the crew chief — who served on multiple combat tours — around 1,000 hours. They flew these same routes for at least three years.7) It was not unusual to have three crew members on a Black Hawk. There’s only four for certain mission sets. Whether the crew chief saw the CRJ would have depended on which side he was sitting on.8) It was a dark night, with no moon.9) Air Traffic Control could have told the Black Hawk to hold north, or diverted it.10) Potential changes could be to change the route, altitude, or hours during heavy air traffic.“All these things, they all made for the perfect storm.”

A bunch of that is incorrect.

Based on the Blancolerio video above, approach for runway 1 and runway 33 are the same, except for the final, where the 33 traffic goes slightly right of 1 and turns slightly left to line up for 33. The CRJ was not making a significant turn. Also found references that say runway 33 is frequently used by smaller general aviation and regional planes like the CRJ, particularly during busy periods.