Helicopter Crash in DC
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God, how awful. Was it very windy last night? It was around here. Not sure whether that could have contributed
@Doctor-Phibes said in Helicopter Crash in DC:
God, how awful. Was it very windy last night? It was around here. Not sure whether that could have contributed
Yeah, what's worse (I guess) is they were approved and lined up for the main runway (Runway 1) but due to the wind the pilot asked to land on Runway 33 instead, which is not abnormal for CRJs at the airport. Fatal change.
If I were a betting man, I bet the pilot of the helicopter was looking either at the CRJ that just took off or a CRJ lined up for Runway 1 (which would've been straight in front of him) and didn't see (obviously) the CRJ lined up for Runway 33 which is about a 45 degree difference to his left as he was flying forward.
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And at least one of those on the Blackhawk was a trainee…
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Just an opinion...
Jets like the Bombardier don't have a lot of visibility looking down from the cockpit. The helicopter surely has a lot more total visibility. With all the lights of that urban setting at night and figuring in the short runways, I'm guessing Reagan is not an easy place to land at that time of the day.
Going forward, we're going to have to address helicopters and commercial jet traffic, and whether any helicopter visual separation is allowed by the tower (assuming the tower has the helicopter on radar).
@Jolly said in Helicopter Crash in DC:
Just an opinion...
Jets like the Bombardier don't have a lot of visibility looking down from the cockpit. The helicopter surely has a lot more total visibility. With all the lights of that urban setting at night and figuring in the short runways, I'm guessing Reagan is not an easy place to land at that time of the day.
Going forward, we're going to have to address helicopters and commercial jet traffic, and whether any helicopter visual separation is allowed by the tower (assuming the tower has the helicopter on radar).
Yes the pilots were absolutely focused on the landing, since it's a shorter runway and windy. This is 100% the helicopter pilot's fault, a sad accident.
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@George-K said in Helicopter Crash in DC:
As @Copper and @LuFins-Dad and others can attest, this is absolutely normal. Multiple, multiple times per day you'll see blackhawks and other helicopters going up and down the Potomac. Like, if you were playing golf at Hains Point you'll have a helicopter go over you within 30 minutes, guaranteed.
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Separation is common between a pilot and the tower to indicate they should (maintain) visual separation. Kind of an obvious command, but for choppers in the area it's not really possible to control their heading and altitude the way they can with planes coming in for a landing.
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Not sure, but is that the blackhawk sitting on top of the airplane? I wonder if it struck the airplane directly on the nose.
Larger pic: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1idgd3d/photo_of_american_airlines_5342/#lightbox
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Did they have divers in the water last night? I thought that I heard that they didn’t. Just helicopters and boats.
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I thought I heard last night they had 4 divers in the water. Who knows. I'd imagine the back half of the plane was submerged under water with people still buckled in, it happened so fast. About 5 seconds from sudden explosion/collision before the (split) plane was in the water and sinking.
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Nothing new that wasn't posted above, but somewhat of a longer clip for more context:
Link to video -
I think there were at least 4 divers on the scene at around 10 PM.
My first instinct is to blame the Army pilot, but I guess mechanical failure is possible.
On a training mission I would expect the instructor to put a little extra stress on the student. I believe the sec def said this was recurrent training, meaning it was not initial training, if so, the trainee had done this kind of flying before and was possibly an experienced pilot.
If either the instructor or the trainee was a gay black guy, the DEI movement is dead, now and forever.
They (Trump and Sec Def) are already making anti-DEI noise, saying only the best and the brightest will be ATC or pilots, no DEI hires here.
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Hegseth said it was a routine nightime training flight. The way he talked, it was the kind of flight routinely flown to keep up skill levels, not to train a newer pilot how to do something. The Army already has investigators on site and they are working with the FAA.
Trump said in the presser that the A A pilot had done nothing wrong. Trump said he did not know if the air traffic controllers had done anything wrong, but that the Biden era DEI policies for that job are no longer in effect. He also said they were looking into whether the numbers of ATC were adequate.
Duffy said that the investigation is under way and answers will be swift in forthcoming and will be made public.
I wonder if all the lights of the city were a factor.
