AA jet and Military helicopter collide over Potomac 8

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

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

There is thing called aerodrome traffic zone in the rest of the world around airports.

But I don't know if the FAA uses it.

It's up to 2000ft and 2.5NM midpoint of longest runway.

 

[DirteJoe]

It may differ from the Army, but part of the FAA's concession with allowing military air traffic through under visual separation rules was to ALWAYS maintain 1500ft minimum separation from all civilian traffic.

So it wasn't all just a free for all, but doesn't seem the Army had similar policies in place.

 

[LittleInch]

They probably interpreted that as meaning that the civilian aircraft had to bugger off out of the way..... Even so that's only about 450m or about 1/3 mile. Or about seven seconds when travelling at 120 kts. assuming that distance is a horizontal one. If its vertical then route 4 should never have been allowed while aircraft were using runway 33 to land or take off.

And how you can judge distances when travelling at that speed at night is beyond the ability of anyone without radar. And especially virtually head on.

Think this ones going to end up unfortunately with the Air Traffic controller having all the information, automated warnings, visual tracking etc telling them a collision was about to happen and they did not do enough to ensure there wasn't either a mid air collision or a very near miss. Of course the root cause is allowing such a situation to become possible with the intersection of a helicopter route and a glide slope into a working runway with negligible vertical clearance. IMHO.

 

[LionelHutz]

Hmm, so there was a minimum distance. Imagine that...

Even without a fixed number, far enough away you don't crash would be the minimum distance to stay back, not trying to pass 25' under the landing gear.

 

[DirteJoe]

I stand corrected. It's a minimum of 500ft to any person, vessel, building, vehicle, etc. It's a DoD/FAA agreement mostly aimed at high speed military training routes for the Air Force; the USMC, Army, and Coast Guard have been instructed to follow the DoD policy for all training flights per their chains of command.

One thing to keep in mind, is 200ft on route 4 was just the maximum altitude. They could have been at 100ft and been just fine.

 

[spsalso]

FAA

I believe it was mentioned earlier that there were quite a few close calls at this route intersection. And the FAA knew, or should have known, about it.

If that's the case, someone knew there was a dangerous situation, and did nothing. Or not enough to have adequate effect.

I was just wondering who that person or people were.

The FAA does not make decisions. People do.


spsalso

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Rule 5 only applies away from landing areas. Which is the 500ft.

The whole setup is a fudge of the normal. I really think all norms have been waved.

Unfortunately lives have been lost to end it.

I suspect discussions now are purely financial to allocate who is going to pay the deceased relatives.

They will want all the blame to be pointed at the least able to pay. Ie the mil helicopter pilot.

 

[IRstuff]

No collision, but close encounter requiring diversion, and involving USAF planes and commercial airliner at same airport
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/p...7&cvid=45cc745645cc4a9ca27284d3cb8b4fc9&ei=28

 

[Garbage1]

Article on DCA ATC Argument that indicates stress levels may be rising at DCA?

Clearly way too many flights scheduled for an undersized 1930's designed airport, and then a crossing runway... Yet Delta just advertised a new non-stop from DCA to Seattle, which is crazy to add more load on over loaded airport.

Bloody Fight Breaks Out In DCA Tower Between On-Duty Controllers

Two air traffic controllers at Washington National Airport (DCA) got into a bloody fist fight while on duty. Wow.

onemileatatime.com

 

[Garbage1]

Army not being transparent with Congress.

Quotes:

"The committee said that the US Army was asked in March 2025 to provide the memo and at a recent subcommittee hearing on March 27, 2025, Brigadier General Matthew Braman had refused to commit to providing the document, citing an ongoing investigation.

However, at the same subcommittee the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said that the agency’s investigation does not preclude the Department of Defense from sharing the memo. "

Link:

US Army fails to provide ADS-B memo to DCA crash probe

Senators have expressed outrage over the US Army’s failure to provide a memo relating to its use of ADS-B in the National Capital Region.

www.aerotime.aero

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

I would any federal employee at the moment would have increased stress levels.

Plus the aftermath of a major accident is pretty intense even if it's not fatal and your not in the line with criminal investigations.

I suspect they are boiling over never mind rising.

 

[TugboatEng]

It seems to be the new MO of the US government. If you don't want yourself or others talk about it, open an investigation. While the investigation is open, cite the ongoing investigation as an excuse for opacity/obstruction. Then, when the investigation concludes without finding anything refuse any questions on the grounds that the investigation has already been completed.