Plane crash DCA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was the DEI that was the focus immediately afterwards?

The Administration was trying to rile people up into assuming the pilot was an incompetent black woman. I don’t know how many posts I read on here and X stating the pilot was a black woman.

Why are you people still on X? Deactivate that sh!t.

I use a cloned version of X!

Wait, can you tell us how to do that as well?

Absolutely not. I know Muskrat and his flunkies are lurking on here!

[Anonymous]

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/01/g-s1-46002/washington-dc-airport-potomac-crash-black-hawk-military-crew

"Every one of those troops that was in that aircraft earned their place there, and they are the most highly trained military aviators in the world," Senator Tammy Duckworth said of Trump's comments. "And I am just sick to my stomach that we would have a president who would say such things about the heroic men and women who serve every single day."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:A few minutes ago someone posted the name of the female pilot but without a source. Because of the lack of a source, I removed the post. When the page refreshed, a second post quoting the first one was also posted, this one with a link. Because it quoted a post that I deleted, I removed it as well. Now I have vetted both the name and the link.

The pilot's name is Rebecca Lobach and here is an article describing her:

https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/durham-county-news/durham-woman-identified-as-third-aboard-black-hawk-involved-in-dc-midair-collision/amp/

There are several other articles available that identify her as well if you do a search an her name.

May she rest in peace. I'm sorry that our Ghoul in Chief's first reaction is to blame the dead. May we do better in our next election of leaders.

But he has "cOmMoN sEnSe", ok?

So tired of hearing that phrase uttered by idiots who have no critical thinking skills or concept of nuance/complexity.

on this site (aside from politics forum) and in blue portions of DMV are in a bubble, it's astonishing how people outside this bubble still feel and what shit they believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else’s mind still blown that DC airspace is used for training? I guess I thought all those military helicopters were actually doing legitimate military work, not training. I get that training is a necessity but still.

The idea is that in another 9/11-type scenario, these pilots would be responsible for whisking the heads of government out of the danger zone. So they are practicing in the actual airspace they’d be flying under those circumstances.

You don't think they'd ground commercial flights in such a scenario?

They're training to bring generals to their golf game on a normal day.

Of course they would ground flights, but many would be in the air full of passengers and short on fuel because they were coming in to land. You can only divert a flight so far if it is at the end of a flight with minimal fuel remaining on board as designed so the flight is safer when landing.

Expecting the pilots of those helicopters not to train for emergencies in the conditions they would face in an emergency is as nonsensical as expecting cops not to train and then wondering why they lose their sh*t in emergency situations and kill people needlessly.

Humans err. Most of our errors are avoidable. Some of them cost many lives. Welcome to being a member of human society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much has Elon Musk said about this? Let’s be honest - he’s the one actually running the government at the moment. And if he’s unusually quiet about this incident (I have no idea as I’m not on his site) that would be noteworthy, since he seemingly can’t stop himself from weighing in on everything else.

Well now the NTSB has announced it will ONLY be communicating to the press via the app formerly known as Twitter. This is graft, this is corruption. Why the hell is a government bureau only being allowed to communicate through a social media channel owned by Elon. This seems like a crime if I ever saw one.

What? Seriously? No briefings?

You people are hysterical, and I don't mean funny. The NTSB announced that due to the huge amount of requests, they will not be notifying the press of briefings, news, etc., through email. Instead will do public notifications on X for where and when the briefings will take place. Get a grip.

Why force people to use X!?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What an awful time in American society. An aviation tragedy occurs. And half the country desperately wants the pilot to be a woman so they can say I told you so.

Seriously
The clowns are in charge

+1

Why does Trump exploit these tragedies to stoke division?

Because he's a garbage excuse of a human being. He lacks a soul or any sense of morality. Whatever it takes to win, at all costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else’s mind still blown that DC airspace is used for training? I guess I thought all those military helicopters were actually doing legitimate military work, not training. I get that training is a necessity but still.

The idea is that in another 9/11-type scenario, these pilots would be responsible for whisking the heads of government out of the danger zone. So they are practicing in the actual airspace they’d be flying under those circumstances.

You don't think they'd ground commercial flights in such a scenario?

They're training to bring generals to their golf game on a normal day.

Of course they would ground flights, but many would be in the air full of passengers and short on fuel because they were coming in to land. You can only divert a flight so far if it is at the end of a flight with minimal fuel remaining on board as designed so the flight is safer when landing.

Expecting the pilots of those helicopters not to train for emergencies in the conditions they would face in an emergency is as nonsensical as expecting cops not to train and then wondering why they lose their sh*t in emergency situations and kill people needlessly.

Humans err. Most of our errors are avoidable. Some of them cost many lives. Welcome to being a member of human society.

These helicopters aren't generally used for emergencies. They're used to avoid traffic.

[Anonymous]

Which of those on his team because there has to be at least a couple that are there to "save" the country will wipe of this nightmare. He couldn't fking say anything about the deceased. My god what kind of a fking creature is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else’s mind still blown that DC airspace is used for training? I guess I thought all those military helicopters were actually doing legitimate military work, not training. I get that training is a necessity but still.

Not training as in "learning how to do something brand new", training as in certification (or even recertification).

Not training as in “new BH pilot” training as in, pilots are always training. My dads been a pilot for decades (since before I was born and I’m 40), and he still has a few flight instructors that he relies on for training flights. Flying is not like driving - you have to use flight instructors often to keep your skills “current”, get recertified often for things like night time take offs and landings, and even daytime take offs and landings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible the trainee pilot's body hasn't actually been recovered yet? I see many reports of the other 2 military members of the helicopter being recovered, and the black box, but I haven't seen a report about the third body. Maybe I missed it? (Not that they couldn't release the name of the expected pilot, but maybe they are waiting for the body?)

Meanwhile, I, personally, would like more info about any activities that helicopter was performing earlier, including transport of VIPs etc.

The body was recovered today. It was reported this morning. All three people that were in the helicopter were recovered and are out of the water.

[Anonymous]

28 years old.

[Anonymous]

People are focused on the assumption it was a black woman. In terms of DEI, a woman crew member of a BH of any color, white included, would absolutely be considered a DEI hire.

[Anonymous]

Why was hwe name released after the family asked not to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are focused on the assumption it was a black woman. In terms of DEI, a woman crew member of a BH of any color, white included, would absolutely be considered a DEI hire.

I think most see DEI as benefitting women, especially when it comes to the military.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't link to it right now because I'm on my phone, but Washington Post has a visual that is an aerial shot if the area and shows the flight path of both aircraft.

The plane approaches from the South and banks gently west toward the airport, what seems like a very typical approach for anyone who has flown into National.

The helicopter path is bizarre. Travels SE past Hain's Point, the turns SW toward Alexandria, then adjusts to a course that is due South. Then just before the collision, turns fairly hard SW and straight into path of the plane, which according to ATC was on a steady, normal descent.

Why does the helicopter turn hard toward National right before collision? Why do they turn toward the middle of the river at all? Even if flying higher than normal, if they had just maintained that due South course, they would have missed the plane (still too close for comfort and would require review, but without the tragic deaths of nearly 70 people).

I don't get it.

The path is plotted from I assume early ADSB data. This gives off points that can be off by a few feet here and there. The travel between these points is not a straight line. The path looks weird on the graphic but in reality was a lot smoother than this data. The final NTSB report will include more precise paths.

That said the path definitely looks to be hand flown as 99% of helo operations are (not even sure these have an autopilot on them.)

The crossover of the Potomac is also a typical route. The helos from billing regularly dart across between the final approach course. It’s a dumb as crap plan but it has worked. Clearly altitude was an issue and situational awareness. It was hard watching the radar scope on YouTube where you could see the conflict from what looked like 3-4 miles away. This should have been plenty of time for ATC to provide more separation.

Yes, if you're not also coordinating a steady stream of planes landing literally every other minute, as well as a steady stream of planes departing every few minutes.