Plane crash DCA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the scanner app. This is horrible. Just wait until President Musk shuts down the FAA.

Please keep the hate elsewhere.

Okay. Let’s talk instead about how unelected oligarch Musk attacked the FAA repeatedly because he didn’t like them fining SpaceX, and then demanded the head resign one year into his five year term. And so he did! On January 20. Well done, Elon. We totally don’t need government to function!

Was the head of the FAA in the ATC tower last night? Does the head of the FAA have to give the controllers a pep talk every day?

[Anonymous]

There is nothing unusual or suspicious about the way the plane was directed to 33 or approached it. People are just grasping at straws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHY wasn't there a DoD rep at the press conference???!!

It is WELL KNOWN that any kind of military aircraft mishap MUST have a public statement out NLT 1 hour after incident is known.

Press conference (including US Senators) didn't have a single word about/from the DoD.

The man is a coward and a drunk. He is not fit for the job, and most of us didn’t need this prime example to realize this. God help us all over the next few years.

Yeah I thought the DoD would be front and center here.

Army officials aren't saying anything (per news). But at the press conference, one of the speakers said they recovered one body from the helicopter.

This is highly, highly unusual. The Pentagon is right across the river. How is it that NO ONE was present at this press conference??? Where is Secretary Hegseth? Or at least a spokesperson?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the scanner app. This is horrible. Just wait until President Musk shuts down the FAA.

Please keep the hate elsewhere.

Okay. Let’s talk instead about how unelected oligarch Musk attacked the FAA repeatedly because he didn’t like them fining SpaceX, and then demanded the head resign one year into his five year term. And so he did! On January 20. Well done, Elon. We totally don’t need government to function!

Was the head of the FAA in the ATC tower last night? Does the head of the FAA have to give the controllers a pep talk every day?

Didn't Elon make him quit? He has not been replaced.

[Anonymous]

Only the best people:

"Obviously it is not standard to have aircraft collide. I want to be clear on that." -- Sean Duffy, our new secretary of transportation in the new awful administration.

What a freaking Putz.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know whether helicopters crossing are supposed to wait for an affirmative okay to cross from the ATC, or whether they can cross unless told NOT to cross by ATC?

This does seem like a crazy intersection to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only the best people:

"Obviously it is not standard to have aircraft collide. I want to be clear on that." -- Sean Duffy, our new secretary of transportation in the new awful administration.

What a freaking Putz.

Yet somehow one of the least unqualified cabinet members/nominees... We're so screwed.

[Anonymous]

Those poor figure skaters. So many young lives. This is awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ATC system is broken. After the Reagan firings the training was reduced and you now have under qualified controllers being rushed into jobs. And the rollout of GPS has taken decades. There’s no easy fix but the system needs budget and needs to hire people based on their qualifications and not other factors. And it’s the same with pilots too btw. DCA has some of the busiest space and had two near collisions in the last 6 months, both directly ATC screwups.

We should probably overhaul the system. Call it Nextgen or something.

lol

Yeah for another $2b

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s chaos in every single branch of the government right now. But sure blame the airport.

This is human error, not the government’s fault. But how can you not put some blame on the airport? It’s literally their job to manage planes landing. Saying to the helicopter “do you see the plane” when there are multiple close by planes, including one close enough to crash into them, seems like mismanagement of air traffic to me

The flight patterns necessarily take planes and helicopters close to each other. This only works if you can trust the helicopter flying under visual rules to see approaching aircraft. Maybe that's an unfair and unrealistic expectation, but expecting ATC to handle this any other way than they did is wholly impractical.

When multiple planes are in the sky close together, how is it that ATC communicates and distinguishes them to each other? If ATC called the helicopter to ask if they had visual of “the plane,” and the helicopter said yes, but it was a different plane, then ATC made in error in not effectively communicating and distinguishing the threat.

True.

[Anonymous]

I miss Pete

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s chaos in every single branch of the government right now. But sure blame the airport.

This is human error, not the government’s fault. But how can you not put some blame on the airport? It’s literally their job to manage planes landing. Saying to the helicopter “do you see the plane” when there are multiple close by planes, including one close enough to crash into them, seems like mismanagement of air traffic to me

Looks like miscommunication was the biggest factor. The helicopter pilots appear to be focused on air traffic from runway 1. Looks like they waited for an airplane to take off and then crossed. This is a very common route for military helicopters coming up from Ft. Belvoir. But unbeknownst to them, minutes earlier the flight from Wichita had been directed to use the much less frequently used runway 33 instead of runway 1. So it looks like the Army pilots were focused on the wrong plane since their attention was on runway 1.

Clearly, there will need to be new procedures for Reagan, particularly at night. Too much air traffic and too many blinking lights in the night sky to be relying on visual confirmation.

Right after 9/11, we had the opportunity to move Reagan airport outside the beltway.

We failed to make the right choice back then. There should not be a civilian airport inside the beltway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s chaos in every single branch of the government right now. But sure blame the airport.

This is human error, not the government’s fault. But how can you not put some blame on the airport? It’s literally their job to manage planes landing. Saying to the helicopter “do you see the plane” when there are multiple close by planes, including one close enough to crash into them, seems like mismanagement of air traffic to me

Looks like miscommunication was the biggest factor. The helicopter pilots appear to be focused on air traffic from runway 1. Looks like they waited for an airplane to take off and then crossed. This is a very common route for military helicopters coming up from Ft. Belvoir. But unbeknownst to them, minutes earlier the flight from Wichita had been directed to use the much less frequently used runway 33 instead of runway 1. So it looks like the Army pilots were focused on the wrong plane since their attention was on runway 1.

Clearly, there will need to be new procedures for Reagan, particularly at night. Too much air traffic and too many blinking lights in the night sky to be relying on visual confirmation.

Right after 9/11, we had the opportunity to move Reagan airport outside the beltway.

We failed to make the right choice back then. There should not be a civilian airport inside the beltway.

Where would it have gone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know whether helicopters crossing are supposed to wait for an affirmative okay to cross from the ATC, or whether they can cross unless told NOT to cross by ATC?

This does seem like a crazy intersection to me.

Also was the helicopter also planning to land or was it continuing the training flight?

[Anonymous]

In Europe the ATC will call out specifically where there may be something impeding an approach by a plane - so it's not a visual approach by the pilot(s). In other words, they aren't going to leave it in human hands. It's a lot of risk because people do make mistakes. Many European pilots will not accept visual approaches when they come into US. Our processes are much looser than many other countries and some foreign pilots scoff at them. This is an example.