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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm hoping someone who is knowledgable about aviation can answer this, but why did the helicopter pilot ask for visual clearance?  In the audio you can hear the pilot asking for permission for visual clearance which was approved by the ATC, but why?  What would it be beneficial to the pilot?[/quote]

It’s standard. It’s nothing out of the ordinary. ATC just must approve.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ATC/s/f55jNolBC4
[/quote]

I understand that it's standard but I still don't get why the pilot wanted it in the first place. [/quote]

It enables them to deviate from their set course without having to check with ATC for each small deviation, if it's done to "maintain visual separation."

If they don't get that permission, and they later see that they are too close to the plane, they then have to request permission from ATC to fly off course to maintain distance.

It's particularly common for helicopters which are more agile and also which, because flying at a lower height, more likely to encounter other obstacles they need to navigate around. Under ideal circumstances, giving the helicopter here visual separation is best for everyone because they are better position to know where to go to get around the plane coming in.

Obviously something about this situation was not ideal, though we don't know what yet. Either the helicopter had eyes on the wrong plane and was unaware of the location of the closer plane, or something went wrong with the helicopter that impacted their ability to maintain separation. The latter seems less likely because ATC hailed them a second time to confirm that they saw the plane and they again requested and were granted visual separation. This makes it more likely that they had eyes on the wrong plane. But we'll see -- the black boxes will provide info about exactly what happened in the helicopter before the crash, which could provide an explanation that doesn't fall into these two broad categories as well.[/quote]

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