Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I just heard the pilot of the helicopter was a woman. Trump, Hegseth and MAGA are getting ready to ramp up their “I Told You So” tour.

You heard from Fox or maybe one of the MAGA nuts?

It is clearly a male voice from the radio.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r90Xw3tQC0I

Man, the male helo pilot (or copilot) said at both ATC warnings that yes, they have visual separation and then went and crashed into the underside of the jet.

W T F.

They could have been watch another plane. It is in the video. Though he could have stopped. Helicopter can hover.

No. Look at the radar. If the helicopter pilot was looking at another plane, he was staring out the side window of the helicopter.

The plane he crashed into is directly in front of him. Even accounting for the fact the plane is descending in altitude and the dark, there is no plausible way the helicopter pilot though they were talking about one of the other planes. There was only one other plane in the vicinity and it's to the side and behind the helicopter.

Also the ATC identifies the aircraft by call sign, which presumably should have shown up on helicopter radar as well.

Anonymous wrote:Standards for pilots and ATC were reduced to lessen barriers for historically under represented minorities and women. And on the ATC side there have been an explosion of errors and near collisions. This is what the maga crowd is referring to. It’s not fair or at the core true - ATC issues are much deeper. But this is a perception in the aviation community, much of which leans right anyway.

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Anonymous wrote:If the helo was en route from Langley back to Ft. Belvoir, why did they follow the river at all? It's not remotely the most direct path, which would be over land.

The military helicopter was on an annual recertification training flight. They flew straight into the right rear of AA passenger airplane! They were at an unauthorized altitude at impact.
They should have seen the passenger airplane!

There is nothing the AA pilots could have done who were seconds away from touchdown! The AC controllers were talking to both aircraft. Helicopter said they saw the airplane, but they didn’t flying directly into it (with night vision goggles on per Hegseth).

That's not great. Night vision goggles typically have a narrow FOV. Even the better ones are only 120 degrees.

I wondered about this. Thanks for posting. And I was wondering (have no idea) if they make it harder to distinguish all the different lights they are seeing? Airport, bridge, buildings, monuments, other planes, etc.

Anonymous wrote:NYT reporting two helicopter pilots: one male, one female.

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Anonymous wrote:I would like to hear the DoD say they are suspending all non-essential helicopter flights in the DC area pending an investigation. They won't, but they should.

Given this incident, there is no reason for DoD to be using airspace around DC for ordinary transport (that could easily and efficiently be done by car) or for training.

They won't do this though because it would raise the question of whether it was irresponsible to be using helicopters so extensively for these non-essential purposes in the first place.

I would like to hear this, too. The Air Force base on one side of the river, very busy DCA on the other side - there is no room for error and it’s unbelievable air traffic controllers are supposed to handle landing a plane every two minutes in this tight airspace, even if they didn’t have to watch out for military helicopters!

And again this was an annual recertification training flight for the helicopter. The AF base is right there.

This was nothing to do with the base at Bolling. The Helo flight was from Langley (VA) to Ft. Belvoir (VA.) It was flying neither to nor from Bolling.

Anonymous wrote:The ATC direction is supposed to be more precise. “Traffic 12 o’clock 2 miles a CRJ. Report in sight and maintain visual separation”. Not “hey bro you see a plane anywhere?”

Probably cause likely will be helo pilot not maintaining separation but I fully expect ATC to be listed as contributing. The insane piece is the tower probably only had 2 controllers (for tower ops. Arrival/departure had a couple more). It’s 2025 and the human factor needs to be removed.

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Anonymous wrote:If the helo was en route from Langley back to Ft. Belvoir, why did they follow the river at all? It's not remotely the most direct path, which would be over land.

Rivers are quieter but clearly they need a better plan for avoiding active DCA jet traffic.

I'm the PP you quoted. I saw a clip on youtube of an "expert" saying that military helicopters fly designated "lanes" or routes and the east edge of the potomac is one common route. However he also said if they helicopter was at 200 ft like it should have been, he would have missed the plane entirely as plans are not that low until they are much closer to the runway.

The projected flight of the helicopter would have taken it over the main runway at national. So the helicopter seems to be above 200 foot restriction and crossing the river from east to west(not the normal flight path)

That’s a mystery to me.

Wtf was the expected route of the black hawk?

Was it really going to cut across the entire river and DCA airport? Or did it just wander into the middle of the river at too high an altitude?

What was it supposed to be doing?!?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the helo was en route from Langley back to Ft. Belvoir, why did they follow the river at all? It's not remotely the most direct path, which would be over land.

The military helicopter was on an annual recertification training flight. They flew straight into the right rear of AA passenger airplane! They were at an unauthorized altitude at impact.
They should have seen the passenger airplane!

There is nothing the AA pilots could have done who were seconds away from touchdown! The AC controllers were talking to both aircraft.

Helicopter said they saw the airplane, but they didn’t, flying directly into it (with night vision goggles on per Hegseth).

+1

Suicide? Mental issues?
Bad eyesight?
Navs broken?
Lack of focus?
Medical issue?
Mechanical issue?

Asking the helo pilots if they saw 'a plane' is like asking a guy in the woods if he saw a tree.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I just heard the pilot of the helicopter was a woman. Trump, Hegseth and MAGA are getting ready to ramp up their “I Told You So” tour.

You heard from Fox or maybe one of the MAGA nuts?

It is clearly a male voice from the radio.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r90Xw3tQC0I

Man, the male helo pilot (or copilot) said at both ATC warnings that yes, they have visual separation and then went and crashed into the underside of the jet.

W T F.

They could have been watch another plane. It is in the video. Though he could have stopped. Helicopter can hover.

Unless this was a suicide mission.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please post links of the victims .. is there a list somewhere?

I haven't seen an list other than what the ice skating clubs have posted, plus the name of one of the pilots.

"American Eagle flight pilot was 28-year-old Sam Lilley"

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Anonymous wrote:They keep sticking to the plan to reopen DCA at 11 but with so much recovery still to do will they really?

The recovery is in the water, not on the runways.

Still. Horrifying.

Absolutely! No one wants to see the wreckage beneath them as they land or fly out.

Did they close for the same amount of time for Air Florida?

I was 12. There was a snowstorm that hit that day. The city was pretty much shutdown. We got stuck at school. Parents stuck coming home from work. None of the school buses could get through we had dinner from the school cafeteria in the pod watching the wheeled in TV. I remember kids crying. One had a parent on the 14th street bridge where plane impacted. I still have images of that rescue operation and think of it every day when I cross that bridge.

Worse than that. It was also the day when Metrorail had its first fatal accident. The airport, the bridge, the metro system. A truly terrible day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just heard the pilot of the helicopter was a woman. Trump, Hegseth and MAGA are getting ready to ramp up their “I Told You So” tour.

You heard from Fox or maybe one of the MAGA nuts?

It is clearly a male voice from the radio.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r90Xw3tQC0I

Couldn't the person talking not have been the one flying the helicopter? There were three soldiers on the helicopter. This makes sense with Trump's DEI statements. Hegseth said in his statement that they know the identities of the soldiers on board. And, of course, this would play perfectly into Hegseth's claims that the military has gone to shit under Biden because it's no longer the best and brightest being promoted, etc., it's all based on DEI. He also claims that, under Biden, there's not enough time for military training in the field, etc. because they all had to constantly do DEI, sexual assault, etc. training. I REALLY hope the PP is wrong that the pilot of the helicopter was a woman, but I'm afraid that may be the case.

So what if it was a woman? Has a man never crashed a plane? The blame lies on DoD to be allowing ‘training flights’ at night right next to a very busy airport. I’m in McLean and the number of helicopters that have been going around the last three weeks has been very strange. Guess what? It has been awfully quiet today.

I don’t mind seeing the CV and qualifications of who flew their military helicopter into a landing commercial jet.

I’d welcome that info. Now.