Plane crash DCA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great pilot analysis. He seems fairly confident the Helo simply had the wrong airplane in sight. Literally did not see the other plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgllf1L9_4

If true it's really hard to understand how they don't see the airplane right in front of them, both on radar and visually. Like I understand what this guy is saying and I assume he knows more than I do about what it's like in the air, but when you look at the radar and see the video footage, it's hard to make sense of because the plane is *right there.*

What is the reason they might not be looking at radar to see the closer plane? There are two pilots and a crew chief on the helicopter. Surely one of them would be in charge of checking radar especially while flying through that particular corridor knowing there will be planes taking off and landing from National. I don't get it.

It also raises the question of whether the night vision goggles they were wearing for training purposes obscured their vision to the degree that it made it more likely they would not see the closer jet and would think the area closer to them was clear. If that's the case, I'm sorry, but this is 100% on the DoD for permitting that kind of training flight near a very busy urban airport. Like completely unacceptable. I understand why an Army pilot would need training with night vision goggles but there is no reason why that should be done in an area where it could jeopardize civilian lives in that way.

So if this is the explanation, it honestly raises more questions than it answers. IMO.

I see what you are saying. But the Helo pilot acknowledges at least twice (maybe 3 times?) that he sses the aircraft and assumes responsibility for visual separation. So he's either a terrible judge of distance and incorrectly thought he would clear the plane, OR was focuses on creating visual deparation from a completely different plane.

[Anonymous]

They released the name of the crew chief, who was in the back of the helicopter- but why haven’t they released the name of the pilot and co pilot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/29/us/plane-crash-washington-dc

Staffing at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport was “not normal” during the deadly late-night crash between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people, a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration report said, as bodies of the victims were being recovered Thursday from the icy Potomac.

The internal report reviewed by The New York Times said the controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity on Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways — jobs typically assigned to two different controllers. President Trump promised on Thursday that a thorough investigation would be conducted, while also engaging in political attacks on his predecessors.

This was not an ATC nor staffing issue.

Just because you say something does not make it true. I prefer to actually read cited news sources. You can go play around with your tinfoil hat.

At this point no one knows what happened - as emphasized by the NTSB folks who just spoke to the press. Not even cited news sources. If anyone or any news site is reporting cause right now, they are making it up. Everyone needs to hold their horses.

+1 million

Normally they would not be doing this. But people are taking their cues from Trump shooting off his mouth and blaming all the dead people.

Maybe for some.

But there are nutty conspiracy theorists on DCUM who do this for every single tragedy. It’s gross.

Be fair. This is an internet-wide problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great pilot analysis. He seems fairly confident the Helo simply had the wrong airplane in sight. Literally did not see the other plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgllf1L9_4

This seems like the most obvious answer. Was simply looking right when the plane ATC was referring to was coming from the left

Meanwhile on the radar screen….

Actually the plane they hit would have been ahead of them and slightly left, and the plane they thought they were looking out for would have been behind that plane a little further to the left.

Yes and on the radar screen heading towards runway 33. As the helicopter was told twice.

Don’t tell me a pilot who memorized 400+ page aircraft binder manual can’t memorize 3 runways at DCA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great pilot analysis. He seems fairly confident the Helo simply had the wrong airplane in sight. Literally did not see the other plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgllf1L9_4

Nice explanation of the tower and ground control comms, but has some blind spots on the helo flying.

I've been scouring for Helo pilot analysis, but haven't found any good ones yet. There were some awesome ones after the Kobe incident so I'm hoping they are working on producing a video.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't wait for what happens when lays off half the government and no one wants to work for it anymore. Carnage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daniel Driscoll, President Trump’s pick for secretary of the Army, said on Thursday that the Army might need to end flight training near congested urban airports like Reagan National Airport. Driscoll, speaking at a Senate Armed Services hearing to consider his nomination, said the Army would need to look at “where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be near an airport like Reagan.”

I don’t know anything about him but that was a great response. Thoughtful, measured, open minded, data driven

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They released the name of the crew chief, who was in the back of the helicopter- but why haven’t they released the name of the pilot and co pilot?

Perhaps they haven't been able to get in touch with next of kin yet? They need to do that, before releasing names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great pilot analysis. He seems fairly confident the Helo simply had the wrong airplane in sight. Literally did not see the other plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgllf1L9_4

If true it's really hard to understand how they don't see the airplane right in front of them, both on radar and visually. Like I understand what this guy is saying and I assume he knows more than I do about what it's like in the air, but when you look at the radar and see the video footage, it's hard to make sense of because the plane is *right there.*

What is the reason they might not be looking at radar to see the closer plane? There are two pilots and a crew chief on the helicopter. Surely one of them would be in charge of checking radar especially while flying through that particular corridor knowing there will be planes taking off and landing from National. I don't get it.

It also raises the question of whether the night vision goggles they were wearing for training purposes obscured their vision to the degree that it made it more likely they would not see the closer jet and would think the area closer to them was clear. If that's the case, I'm sorry, but this is 100% on the DoD for permitting that kind of training flight near a very busy urban airport. Like completely unacceptable. I understand why an Army pilot would need training with night vision goggles but there is no reason why that should be done in an area where it could jeopardize civilian lives in that way.

So if this is the explanation, it honestly raises more questions than it answers. IMO.

Agree.

Still want to know if this is an active duty training or reservist training. Time and place for that too. DCA rush hour ain’t it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daniel Driscoll, President Trump’s pick for secretary of the Army, said on Thursday that the Army might need to end flight training near congested urban airports like Reagan National Airport. Driscoll, speaking at a Senate Armed Services hearing to consider his nomination, said the Army would need to look at “where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be near an airport like Reagan.”

I don’t know anything about him but that was a great response. Thoughtful, measured, open minded, data driven

It doesn't take a genius to come to that conclusion. This was the first plane crash by a commercial airline since 2009 and it was caused by a collision with a training flight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They released the name of the crew chief, who was in the back of the helicopter- but why haven’t they released the name of the pilot and co pilot?

Perhaps they haven't been able to get in touch with next of kin yet? They need to do that, before releasing names.

+1 "They" didn't release names, two families reported the loss of their loved ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They released the name of the crew chief, who was in the back of the helicopter- but why haven’t they released the name of the pilot and co pilot?

Perhaps they haven't been able to get in touch with next of kin yet? They need to do that, before releasing names.

Name of the crew chief and one pilot have gotten out, but not via official channels for that reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They released the name of the crew chief, who was in the back of the helicopter- but why haven’t they released the name of the pilot and co pilot?

Perhaps they haven't been able to get in touch with next of kin yet? They need to do that, before releasing names.

NP. Everything I've seen about the crew chief is also sourced to his high school JROTC unit, so I'm guessing they announced it when they heard rather than the military selectively releasing information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great pilot analysis. He seems fairly confident the Helo simply had the wrong airplane in sight. Literally did not see the other plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgllf1L9_4

What about the helicopters radar screen?
CRJ Wichita would have been on that screen.

Does “visual separation” mean you stop looking at your nav’s and just guess at what planes are out there, how fast, how high, what direction they are going?

Guess so

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They released the name of the crew chief, who was in the back of the helicopter- but why haven’t they released the name of the pilot and co pilot?

It’s been leaked and posted elsewhere.