For following orders and then making some kind of flying error? They'd be grounded and have all their flying skills re-evaluated, probably put through mental and physical health checks to find out if there were any reason to believe the error represents a permanent inability to do that job. They might be permanently grounded depending on what was found but unless they engaged in intentionally reckless behavior, they wouldn't be court marshaled or thrown out. They followed orders. My guess is that if they had lived, none of them would want to man a helicopter again because of the guilt associated with killing innocent civilians, and they'd like transfer or leave the military altogether. These all sound like good people who wanted to do good things for the world and their country. I am sure the guilt over this would be overwhelming for them. |
Are YOU that dense? This particular night route was needed for their annual recertification- with or without the VIP drop off prior. They weren’t learning how to fly, it’s an annual sign off that they should have been able to do with zero issue. There was nothing at all complicated about it, the other plane did what it was supposed to do, ATC did what it was supposed to do. If the helicopter followed the very clear instructions and guidelines, everyone would be fine. But they didn’t. There is no indication of why this was anything but a routine flight |
You think they were ordered to fly outside the helicopter corridor and to ignore air traffic control? That's quite the accusation. |
Is head of Army going to be placed on leave? |
They were outside that route-- too close to DCA and too high. |
They'd almost certainly be court-martialed for flying outside their assigned route. The question is whether they'd face negligent homicide charges. |
I know that some people on here really want to blame the female pilot, but I ask you to ask yourselves if you were training someone and they were taking risks you weren’t comfortable with, isn’t it your responsibility to get them back into the realm of safety? And if the ATC is trying to make both pilots aware of a risk they are encountering, and you are in charge of answering, isn’t it your job to make sure you and the other pilot are aware of the risk the ATC is alerting you to before you answer in the affirmative and take responsibility for that risk?
Not trying to throw all the blame at the trainer, just think there was more than one failure here. I feel sorry for everyone involved in this situation. And again, just to echo what other folks are saying, if this training was really just the return trip of the helo necessitated by some initial (and perhaps not really necessary) VIP trip, we deserve to know that, too. |
it was only “needed” because someone higher up decided the risk to civilians was appropriate. That’s the point - there’s no justification to doing training in the middle of an already crowded civilian airspace. |
… and that’s the consequence of having a training route next to a civilian airport. |
You don't know that. We don't know what caused the crash. |
Nobody knows. They are still investigating the collision. |
You don't know if any of that happened. |
You just don't know, period. |
You can do a night route at 11pm though. You don't have to do it at a peak time for the airport. Especially for a training route, you'd think that that whoever assigned this training would have taken into account that this was a less experienced pilot, and especially given the myriad of close calls around National, including some in recent days, involving military helicopters, this particular training should not be scheduled for 8pm. Unless the training was simply tacked on after a VIP drop off that had to happen at 7pm because the VIP said so. |
You are blaming the victim. The widow is a victim on online bullying. By the way that you're playing obtuse about it makes me think you were involved in that. |