AA jet and Military helicopter collide over Potomac 4

Reagan National Airport crash: Military Black Hawk helicopter collides midair with American Airlines jet

An Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair with an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Comcokid]

Not mentioned in this forum thread yet. The helicopter pilots were wearing NVG - Night Vision Goggles. Doesn't this result in low peripheral vision, and what is called a 'tunnel effect'?

 

[TugboatEng]

The Army is refusing to release the name of the helicopter pilot. The other 3 crew members have been identified. I wonder why that is?

Stcbus, consider that the current administration recognized a problem and started doing something about it before the problem caused a crash. It takes time to undo years worth of mismanagement.

 

[hacksaw]

Lest we forget the air traffic controllers who went on strike in 1981 because of safety issues, lack of adequate staffing, time off for meals and breaks. They were all fired....

 

[dik]

A possible explanation:

 

[DirteJoe]

The Army is refusing to release the name of the helicopter pilot. The other 3 crew members have been identified. I wonder why that is?

Either going to be unconfirmed recovery of remains or time around contacting next of kin. The family gets to know first and have a few days before the news knows.

 

[TugboatEng]

It sounds as if the family has requested her name not be released.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

A possible explanation:

Thanks explains what visual separation is.. Not used in europe thankfully.

 

[Garbage1]

Trump Highlights Risks Of DEI In The Sky | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[FacEngrPE]

Good reason to restrict GPS for elevation. The black magic math behind turning signals from several gps satellites into a position results in elevation being less precise than lat/lon. It is really good from the use case of navigation, but not for collision avoidance with respect to objects (or the earth) that are close by.

 

[TugboatEng]

General aviation aircraft use barometric pressure for altitude. There is still a lot of room for error there. I don't know what military helicopters use. There are multiple options that don't have sufficient accuracy to support only 150 feet of separation.

 

[dik]

It sounds as if the family has requested her name not be released.

If she was in training... it seems like a pretty dangerous area to be learning these skills.

 

[TugboatEng]

Again, these should not be inexperienced pilots on these flights. They're flying VIPs. I would have assumed that they were selected because they were the best in their field. However, we can't trust that to be true anymore.

 

[Garbage1]

From recordings and data supplied to date, ATC failed multiple times.

1. ATC supv allowed One person to leave early, so one person was handling planes plus helo's. And there was a line of planes to keep separated.

2. ATC Radar would have shown helo at 400 feet elevation, or double the ceiling height of 200'. Thus ATC should have directed helo to correct their altitude rather than allowing them visual control. But being short handed meant perhaps radar altitude not verified?

3. ATC did not specific which CRJ the helo was supposed to fly behind. Landing or taking off.

4. An experienced helo pilot should be able to judge 200' vs 400' altitude.

5. Bad decision if night vision employeed in that environment.

6. ATC diverted CRJ at last minute, and saw collision path per audio but gave poor guidance to helo.

 

[DirteJoe]

General aviation aircraft use barometric pressure for altitude. There is still a lot of room for error there. I don't know what military helicopters use. There are multiple options that don't have sufficient accuracy to support only 150 feet of separation.

Quality standards for contract manufacturers are also lower than the private sector typically allows, so there's more often then not more error than one would typically expect. Possibly not a factor, but not unlikely.

If she was in training... it seems like a pretty dangerous area to be learning these skills.

Just because it's a training mission doesn't mean they were trainee pilots. Multiple VIP escort helis fly those routes on a schedule like a Taxi system for military and political VIPs. They don't always transport VIP's, especially when there are none to transport. Those missions are then classified as training missions when there are no VIP passengers and done to keep proficiency up as well as keep keeping the route going as to fool enemies into which transport is real and which one isn't.

 

[IRstuff]

However, Trump is right to call out DEI as the problem because the prior administration prioritized the hiring of not only unqualified but disruptive people. Sure, they weren't in the ATC position but imagine having a custodians with severe psychological disabilities sweeping the floor while you're trying to concentrate on your duties.

You can read it here on the official FAA website:

https://archive.ph/uhYgm#selection-2089.0-2111.329

I read the link, which is an archive of the official FAA webpage, and says BUPKIS about hiring unqualified or disruptive people. YOU should read your own citations and stop reguritating nonsense from BS artists without any proof.

 

[DirteJoe]

From recordings and data supplied to date, ATC failed multiple times.

1. ATC supv allowed One person to leave early, so one person was handling planes plus helo's. And there was a line of planes to keep separated.

2. ATC Radar would have shown helo at 400 feet elevation, or double the ceiling height of 200'. Thus ATC should have directed helo to correct their altitude rather than allowing them visual control. But being short handed meant perhaps radar altitude not verified?

3. ATC did not specific which CRJ the helo was supposed to fly behind. Landing or taking off.

4. An experienced helo pilot should be able to judge 200' vs 400' altitude.

5. Bad decision if night vision employeed in that environment.

6. ATC diverted CRJ at last minute, and saw collision path per audio but gave poor guidance to helo.

The Heli never broke 400ft. The ATC track also indicated it at 200ft, then 300ft just before impact with the CRJ still at 400ft.

ATC did specify the CRJ was traffic to the south at the bridge on final for 33, not a departing plane.

Night vision employed is part of their flying at night. Combat readiness at all times.

That route is nothing but collision paths all day every day, and part of the DoD's agreement with the FAA is working around those by keeping altitude separation via VFR under 1500ft. Once the military requests visual, it's on them to not crash into anything. The ATC controller followed their procedures on these VIP flights.

 

[Garbage1]

Really Stupid to be running all this military training in high risk areas around difficult busy civilian air traffic in first place, not to mention the capitol and white house.

Visual control is stupid in this environment. ATC should not give visual control in such a critcal area and ok 300' is what ATC radar says. 200' is ceiling not lowest altitude helo can use over river. System is flawed from Top Down.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

The Army is refusing to release the name of the helicopter pilot. The other 3 crew members have been identified. I wonder why that is?

The name has been released with the family's knowledge and consent.

It seems she was flying with an instructor to requalify for flight operations after being a military aid in the last administration.

This is perfectly normal for special airports both military and civilian. I have done it quite a few times over the years and been the instructor. Some its just SIM session others it's with a training captain with pax in the back.

Visual control is the only thing the twr has.

 

[dik]

Added info...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/30/us/dca-plane-helicopter-crash-invs/index.html

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Th
This incident a few years ago caused quite a bit of hostility across the Atlantic.

US Visual Approaches: lessons from the LH458 incident

On October 16, the crew of a Lufthansa A350 inbound to San Francisco found themselves in an unenviable situation: a seemingly unnecessary last-minute diversion to Oakland after a long-haul flight. The diversion was forced by ATC, following the crews inability to accept a visual approach. The inciden

ops.group

I am sure you can imagine what the hostility was about. Nearly as much as when a British Airways 747 had to shut an engine down after takeoff and elected to cross the Atlantic and had to land in Manchester UK instead of Heathrow due the additional fuel burn. All very legal and acceptable this side of the pond.

Details about what was the goal of the training flight.

Black Hawk helicopter was on emergency evacuation trial run before Washington DC crash, officials say

The Black Hawk helicopter which collided with a passenger plane above Washington DC was training for a hypothetical evacuation of US leaders at the time, according to US officials. Three soldiers inside the military aircraft were killed as well as 64 people aboard the American Airlines jet...

uk.yahoo.com