Trump will use this event to claim a new need for privatizing ATC.
or calling them dei hires or saying they came from foreign mental institutions
He already did that.
Right after mollusk forced out the FAA chief too 🧐
Not only that, Delta Air spent $3.8 million to lobby for more slots. United, Alaska, and American Airlines objected because experts have been arguing for years that Reagan is dangerously overcrowded and had been experiencing near-misses.
Anyway, Delta got what they wanted and just last month the airport started allowing more flights.
I’m confused because Snopes is saying they’re now saying staffing was in control? Wondering who got pressured to change their report.
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation. “Even the crew chief in the back has been in the unit for a very long time, very familiar with the area, very familiar with the routing structure.”
They’re saying that to imply that therefor they’re not at fault, but if anything routine makes you more likely to make mistakes. I’m sure the staffing problems didn’t help either. I guess we’ll see when the report comes out, if the black boxes survived.
The data shows the helicopter well above the maximum altitude - 350 feet instead of 200. I don’t think the staffing was the problem.
Another pair of eyes might have caught it and called out “hey fuckass, this helo is getting too close, go around”. One person managing too much means they miss things.
Someone did tell the Blackhawk to pass behind the plane prior to the collision. The helo pilots probably thought they were talking about another plane in the airspace, which is always very crowded.
That may well be one thing that’s wrong, but I’m going to guess that normally, one still wouldn’t have a regional jet flying directly over a helicopter with just 150 feet of vertical separation.
EDIT: I was waiting to see if VASAviation – a YouTube channel that puts up ATC radio recordings – would put up logs for this one. Looks like they have; three separate videos.
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Audio of MID-AIR CRASH into Potomac River | Regional Jet and Black Hawk Helicopter
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Last Radio from Army Helicopter | Mid-Air Crash with American Airlines CRJ-700
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Related: Ronald Reagan Airport CLOSED After Mid-Air Crash | All Planes Diverted
EDIT2: Might be more analysis going on on news or aviation sites, but as per the recordings, the helicopter was notified about the plane, said that they had the plane in sight and had requested and was granted clearance for visual separation with it. My understanding is that that places some level of responsibility on the pilot:
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap7_section_2.html
Pilot-applied visual separation.
Maintain communication with at least one of the aircraft involved and ensure there is an ability to communicate with the other aircraft.
The pilot sees another aircraft and is instructed to maintain visual separation from the aircraft as follows:Tell the pilot about the other aircraft. Include position, direction, type, and, unless it is obvious, the other aircraft’s intention.
Obtain acknowledgment from the pilot that the other aircraft is in sight.
Instruct the pilot to maintain visual separation from that aircraft.If the pilot reports the traffic in sight and will maintain visual separation from it (the pilot must state both), the controller may “approve” the operation instead of restating the instructions.
If aircraft are on converging courses, inform the other aircraft of the traffic and that visual separation is being applied.
I don’t think that the above happened in the recording.
Advise the pilots if the targets appear likely to merge.
I don’t think that that happened (at least, not explicitly, though there were multiple transmissions to the helicopter about the plane; I don’t know if there’s specific terminology that has to be used).
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Site seems to be down or getting the thing of death. Does someone have a mirror?
