Plane crash DCA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump spent two minutes on plane crash and condolences and 38 minutes blaming Obama and Biden!

And then Fox News spent most of its discussion afterwards praising Trump’s empathy and saying he was in “Consoler-in-Chief” mode and performing magnificently. It’s why the Trump/MAGA fan’s Shield of Stupidity is impenetrable. They feed themselves nothing but lies, and then demand that those of us with functioning brains and eyes call it the truth.

Were they watching a different press conference? There's no way you could have watched it and said he was in any way a Consoler-in-Chief. It was the opposite.

They were clearly scrambling for something - ANYTHING - positive to say about their Dear Leader’s performance. Oh, and to do this, they actually ignored the press conference that had just ended and instead focused on the FOURTH PARAGRAPH of the official press release, which mentioned the victims.

It was amazing, even for Fox News.

[Anonymous]

Why don't the helicopters stay under 200 feet? Is there a reason they would rather fly higher? I don't get it.

I have not seen one reporter mention the VIP aspect of the flight. Very lackadaisical reporting. Where's that reporter from the Fairfax Times?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump isn’t to blame, Biden isn’t to blame. Neither is ATC. They followed protocol, even if short staffed, they still did exactly what they should have done. I don’t see how the finger can be pointed anywhere other than directly at the helicopter at this point.

Put aside blame, Trump’s reaction to this crash has been immoral and unconscionable. There are nearly 70 dead Americans, including 3 soldiers (he doesn’t even seem to realize what Commander-in-Chief actually means, he just thinks it sounds cool I guess) and his impulse is to place blame on everyone else and somehow imply that if only we could hire white men all the time, none of this would have happened.

He is a soulless monster, and an incredibly stupid person.

+1 His immediate response was to deflect blame from himself.

His quip about swimming, given the circumstances of these deaths and what rescuers are doing right now, is beyond the pale.

[Anonymous]

My fervent hope is that karma comes quickly for the conspiracy theorists/it was intentional posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump isn’t to blame, Biden isn’t to blame. Neither is ATC. They followed protocol, even if short staffed, they still did exactly what they should have done. I don’t see how the finger can be pointed anywhere other than directly at the helicopter at this point.

Put aside blame, Trump’s reaction to this crash has been immoral and unconscionable. There are nearly 70 dead Americans, including 3 soldiers (he doesn’t even seem to realize what Commander-in-Chief actually means, he just thinks it sounds cool I guess) and his impulse is to place blame on everyone else and somehow imply that if only we could hire white men all the time, none of this would have happened.

He is a soulless monster, and an incredibly stupid person.

+1 His immediate response was to deflect blame from himself.

His quip about swimming, given the circumstances of these deaths and what rescuers are doing right now, is beyond the pale.

Yes. He's not normal. Why did we elect such a depraved man to this position? The comment was deranged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One interesting, mostly crazy rumor is that this was a test of self-flying technology - think Waymo but for helicopters. The human crew was there as safeguards. Yes, it’s wild and seemingly far-fetched, but it would at least explain the currently inexplicable maneuvers made by the chopper right before impact. Ever seen a self-driving car trying to handle conflicting data?

I highly doubt any military pilot would try that by an airport. DCA is notoriously dicey as it is. It’s counter-intuitive for those of us who fear flying, but most pilots don’t like risk.

That’s a job for test pilots who are a different group altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't the helicopters stay under 200 feet? Is there a reason they would rather fly higher? I don't get it.

I have not seen one reporter mention the VIP aspect of the flight. Very lackadaisical reporting. Where's that reporter from the Fairfax Times?

I saw Hegseth’s update this morning. While there was no mention of an actual VIP, it was said something along the lines of it was a training mission and helicopter have to be in this same airspace as commercial jets at part of government contingencies- getting VIPs in/out quickly. And that it is crucial to be able to train as you would be expect to perform on an actual mission. It was also said all victims’ next of kin had been notified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump isn’t to blame, Biden isn’t to blame. Neither is ATC. They followed protocol, even if short staffed, they still did exactly what they should have done. I don’t see how the finger can be pointed anywhere other than directly at the helicopter at this point.

Put aside blame, Trump’s reaction to this crash has been immoral and unconscionable. There are nearly 70 dead Americans, including 3 soldiers (he doesn’t even seem to realize what Commander-in-Chief actually means, he just thinks it sounds cool I guess) and his impulse is to place blame on everyone else and somehow imply that if only we could hire white men all the time, none of this would have happened.

He is a soulless monster, and an incredibly stupid person.

+1 His immediate response was to deflect blame from himself.

His quip about swimming, given the circumstances of these deaths and what rescuers are doing right now, is beyond the pale.

Yes. He's not normal. Why did we elect such a depraved man to this position? The comment was deranged.

Well, I don’t think we did. To believe that means that we believe that hundreds of thousands of people went to the polls, voted for Trump for President, but didn’t vote down ballot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump isn’t to blame, Biden isn’t to blame. Neither is ATC. They followed protocol, even if short staffed, they still did exactly what they should have done. I don’t see how the finger can be pointed anywhere other than directly at the helicopter at this point.

Put aside blame, Trump’s reaction to this crash has been immoral and unconscionable. There are nearly 70 dead Americans, including 3 soldiers (he doesn’t even seem to realize what Commander-in-Chief actually means, he just thinks it sounds cool I guess) and his impulse is to place blame on everyone else and somehow imply that if only we could hire white men all the time, none of this would have happened.

He is a soulless monster, and an incredibly stupid person.

+1 His immediate response was to deflect blame from himself.

His quip about swimming, given the circumstances of these deaths and what rescuers are doing right now, is beyond the pale.

Yes. He's not normal. Why did we elect such a depraved man to this position? The comment was deranged.

His idiotic comments don't directly effect my life but the inane social policies of the left did.

He's snarking about a deadly plane crash in front of cameras where the families of these people can see what he's saying? I think that goes way beyond idiotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't the helicopters stay under 200 feet? Is there a reason they would rather fly higher? I don't get it.

I have not seen one reporter mention the VIP aspect of the flight. Very lackadaisical reporting. Where's that reporter from the Fairfax Times?

I saw Hegseth’s update this morning. While there was no mention of an actual VIP, it was said something along the lines of it was a training mission and helicopter have to be in this same airspace as commercial jets at part of government contingencies- getting VIPs in/out quickly. And that it is crucial to be able to train as you would be expect to perform on an actual mission. It was also said all victims’ next of kin had been notified.

A lot of kin found out quickly as they were at the airport to pick up their family members and knew about the crash immediately. Also it spread so quickly online that lots of family members found out that way. I am sure there were a few people they still had to notify but with the internet these days, the kin mostly knew before anyone else did.

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/30/faa-dei-trump-fact-checker/

Trump actually launched the FAA diversity program. What a clown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump isn’t to blame, Biden isn’t to blame. Neither is ATC. They followed protocol, even if short staffed, they still did exactly what they should have done. I don’t see how the finger can be pointed anywhere other than directly at the helicopter at this point.

It can absolutely be pointed at the powers that be that allowed the ATC towers to be half staffed; those that have pressed for DCA to be so overloaded with flights; and the military geniuses that decided that the busiest hour at DCA is the time to do night training exercises that cross the flight path (rather than waiting until midnight when there are no flights).

But is the “training exercises” thing just a canard? This helicopter had dropped off a VIP someplace (likely Langley) and had to get back to its base. So they call the return flight a training exercise, even though it’s completely unnecessary - essentially some VIP’s desire to avoid traffic and sit in a black SUV for a few minutes longer led to the deaths of 70 people.

I suspect "training" is a pretty wide catch-all bucket for any time they are flying without a specific mission, like the return part of dropping off someone could count towards your flight hours. A joyride with a few friends could be "training." I am skeptical this was some meticulously planned out exercise for the benefit of the pilot in a formal sense. It doesn't make sense that as part of formal training a pilot in an instructor role would allow the trainee to fly so wildly out of bounds in terms of height, but if training is basically a coding thing for time tracking and that was not an uncommon practice (and the way I see this helps wilding all over the place makes me think it wasn't...) that makes much more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump isn’t to blame, Biden isn’t to blame. Neither is ATC. They followed protocol, even if short staffed, they still did exactly what they should have done. I don’t see how the finger can be pointed anywhere other than directly at the helicopter at this point.

THIS.

I would say there is no doubt the fault is with the helicopter but it seems sometimes the ATC or the pilots of the other planes are able to take preventative action even for things that aren't their fault. They are able to see or say or hear something that leads to a near miss instead of a crash.

We’d all like to see the DCA data on near misses.

I’m a pilot and I’d issue a citation every time I aborted landing due to a joyride helicopter right by the airstrip.

Basically you just don’t land if there’s a helicopter around now. Full stop. Do a flyby.

Sorry folks, let’s clog up the landing queue some more, circling around again.

About a month ago, the last time I flew into National, the pilot said he needed to circle around because of a black hawk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't the helicopters stay under 200 feet? Is there a reason they would rather fly higher? I don't get it.

I have not seen one reporter mention the VIP aspect of the flight. Very lackadaisical reporting. Where's that reporter from the Fairfax Times?

I saw Hegseth’s update this morning. While there was no mention of an actual VIP, it was said something along the lines of it was a training mission and helicopter have to be in this same airspace as commercial jets at part of government contingencies- getting VIPs in/out quickly. And that it is crucial to be able to train as you would be expect to perform on an actual mission. It was also said all victims’ next of kin had been notified.

A lot of kin found out quickly as they were at the airport to pick up their family members and knew about the crash immediately. Also it spread so quickly online that lots of family members found out that way. I am sure there were a few people they still had to notify but with the internet these days, the kin mostly knew before anyone else did.

Presumably he was only referring to the three service members’ next of kin, as there are protocols to publicly releasing (or with the internet these days officially confirming) victim names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump isn’t to blame, Biden isn’t to blame. Neither is ATC. They followed protocol, even if short staffed, they still did exactly what they should have done. I don’t see how the finger can be pointed anywhere other than directly at the helicopter at this point.

It can absolutely be pointed at the powers that be that allowed the ATC towers to be half staffed; those that have pressed for DCA to be so overloaded with flights; and the military geniuses that decided that the busiest hour at DCA is the time to do night training exercises that cross the flight path (rather than waiting until midnight when there are no flights).

But is the “training exercises” thing just a canard? This helicopter had dropped off a VIP someplace (likely Langley) and had to get back to its base. So they call the return flight a training exercise, even though it’s completely unnecessary - essentially some VIP’s desire to avoid traffic and sit in a black SUV for a few minutes longer led to the deaths of 70 people.

+1

Adding flight hours to the equipment and using fuel costs money so wouldn't it make financial sense to make use of the return trip? Rather than fly back to post after dropping a VIP off and then have to put the helo in the air later on solely for training? We do it all the time with a kid learning how to drive, "hey we have to drive home so why don't you get some driving time in for your permit". If they had orders to travel back via that route anyway, I don't see the problem with calling that leg a training flight and if they didn't I would actually question whether THAT was an efficient use of resources. VIPs using helos for short trips around the beltway is the bigger issue.