Plane crash DCA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After hearing the NTSB chair talk for three minutes, I have more confidence in her than Trump or any of his Cabinet nominees.

To be fair, the bar is extremely low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if 2 out of 3 in the helicopter were white males - does that mean we get to boot out all while males for incompetence?

What was the non-pilot Army General in the back supposed to do again? Unbuckle and go point out the radar screen in front of the faces of the two pilots? While a male pilot said Yes twice to ATC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did I miss the part where it became normal to focus on the race and sex of the pilot when admitting people or hiring them?

yeah, guess you did miss it.

Thought I posted this NY Times article earlier but maybe it was deleted. Where have you been?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/business/pilots-diversity.html

[Anonymous]

According to the FAA, in 2023, there were more than 300 near misses -- a 25% increase over the past decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to Reuters, it was a fairly experienced crew on the helocopter but they were at the wrong altitude.

They were wearing night vision goggles and doing a training flight.

Right before the crash they confirmed they had the jet in sight - they must have been looking at the wrong plane? or else the night goggles impaired their peripheral vision and they couldn't see all the bright lights on the jet they were flying directly into?

were the pilots active duty, full time pilots?

Or were they reservists flying a few times a year?

Pull their career flight logs and let the public know.

The crew chief in the back of the helicopter has been named - Ryan O'Hara. The two in the front were an instructor pilot with 1000 flight hours and the pilot being evaluated who had 500 flight hours. It was an evaluation of a night flight using night vision goggles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to the FAA, in 2023, there were more than 300 near misses -- a 25% increase over the past decade.

Staffing at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” according to an internal preliminary Federal Aviation Administration safety report about the collision that was reviewed by The New York Times.

The controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways. Those jobs typically are assigned to two controllers, rather than one.

This increases the workload for the air traffic controller and can complicate the job. One reason is that the controllers can use different radio frequencies to communicate with pilots flying planes and pilots flying helicopters. While the controller is communicating with pilots of the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other.

Like most of the country’s air traffic control facilities, the tower at Reagan airport has been understaffed for years. The tower there was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels. The targets set by the F.A.A. and the controllers’ union call for 30.

The shortage — caused by years of employee turnover and tight budgets, among other factors — has forced many controllers to work up to six days a week and 10 hours a day.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/29/us/plane-crash-washington-dc?smid=url-share#staffing-was-not-normal-at-airport-tower-according-to-a-preliminary-faa-report

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did I miss the part where it became normal to focus on the race and sex of the pilot when admitting people or hiring them?

yeah, guess you did miss it.

Thought I posted this NY Times article earlier but maybe it was deleted. Where have you been?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/business/pilots-diversity.html

Unfortunately, white men harass women too much. This is a result of the Me Too movement. This is the equivalent of all girl schools, where women won't be interrupted by men.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else struck by the almost total lack of helicopters in the skies today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else struck by the almost total lack of helicopters in the skies today?

Someone is making responsible decisions. Good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else struck by the almost total lack of helicopters in the skies today?

I hear them plenty in NE. It's unnerving on a normal day and even worse today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else struck by the almost total lack of helicopters in the skies today?

I hear them plenty in NE. It's unnerving on a normal day and even worse today.

Interesting. The maps show only 2 choppers over the entire city and one is at crash site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After hearing the NTSB chair talk for three minutes, I have more confidence in her than Trump or any of his Cabinet nominees.

She has taken 20 minutes to say I’m not telling you anything today.

That is much more responsible, and sensitive to family members, though wildly uninformed speculation (as spewed out by the Cheeto-in Chief).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If this is what Trump is like on day 10 of his administration, it's going to be a hellish 4 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/29/us/plane-crash-washington-dc

In this news briefing, President Trump has largely blamed the U.S. Army helicopter crew for the crash, though there is, as yet, no official cause for what happened. He said warnings issued to the helicopter should’ve come earlier, but emphasized that “the people in the helicopter should’ve seen where they were going.”

President Trump blamed diversity requirements at the Federal Aviation Administration and his two Democratic predecessors for the midair collision over the Potomac River on Wednesday night, saying that standards for air traffic controllers had been too lax.

President Trump blamed diversity requirements at the Federal Aviation Administration and his two Democratic predecessors for the midair collision over the Potomac River on Wednesday night, saying that standards for air traffic controllers had been too lax.

Mr. Trump cited no evidence, and even admitted when pressed that the investigation had only just begun.

Trump also was very annoyed by the question from Peter Alexander, who pointed out that the FAA policies in place are the exact same ones that were in place during his first term - called him out on the lies he was telling about having changed Obama policy at all. He was so annoyed that when some sycophantic right wing reporter served him up a softball question, he spent most of the time praising the question and did a call back to his frustration with the Alexander question. He’s such a child, and a stupid one at that. He’s also clearly even more cognitively challenged than he was the first time around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did I miss the part where it became normal to focus on the race and sex of the pilot when admitting people or hiring them?

yeah, guess you did miss it.

Thought I posted this NY Times article earlier but maybe it was deleted. Where have you been?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/business/pilots-diversity.html

An article about more POC being interested in becoming pilots automatically means DEI/unqualified to you?

[Anonymous]

One Blackhawk pilot identified:

"A Mississippi man is among the victims killed in a Wednesday evening crash involving a commercial airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C.

Multiple news outlets, including the Macon Beacon, are reporting the death of Andrew Eaves, a Black Hawk pilot. The Beacon said Eaves is a Noxubee County native.

Eaves' wife, Carrie Eaves, shared the news in a post on Facebook.

"We ask that you pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that are suffering today," she wrote."