The new head of the Army already admitted, in Congressional testimony following this crash, that they should re-evaluate whether it makes sense to have training flights go through that corridor.

This is separate from the FAA's decision to restrict helicopter traffic in that area.

Some of you don't seem to understand that even if the pilots made horrible errors in judgment, they didn't choose to be there at that time. They didn't say "hey you know what would be cool -- let's do my annual night recertification next to a commercial airport at its busiest time! That will be awesome!" They were told, and they are in jobs where you do what you are told. And they died.

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Anonymous wrote:On Reddit, people said the wife of one of the pilots is being treated horribly. She had asked for people to share photos of her husband, and someone replied they should share photos of CRJ victims.

My call to everyone is to do something nice for others.

Text your government friend and let them know you appreciate their work.

Hold the door for someone.

Text a friend or family member, and let them know you love them.

Hope we can preserve aspects of a healthy society where we treat each other well.

It is shockingly insensitive for families of the helicopter pilots to be seeking that kind of attention under the circumstances.

Don’t think those families are less devastated? You suck.

Of course they're probably devastated. But sometimes it is not appropriate to publicly ask others to join in your grieving.

She posted on her personal facebook page. Presumably, the only people that would be looking at it and sharing would be her friends and family. If "the public" doesn't want to share and join in her grieving, they don't need to look at her page.

Or she might not have understood that some posts are set to public. Plenty of people don’t understand the Facebook post settings.

People assuming she set her FB post to public and then trashed her for that are—again—small-minded people who can not envision a variety of possibilities.

So she made a mistake. Just like the helicopter pilots. Luckily her mistake didn't kill 64 innocent people.

The grieving spouse didn't "make a mistake". Bullies targeted her. Don't victim blame here.

And you have no idea what happened on the helicopter or if any "mistakes" were made.

No one is blaming the victims-- the 64 innocent people on the airplane.

Just shut up. The three military members on the plane are victims too who died serving their country. People have accidents all the time. We don't crucify the people involved. You're a toxic ghoul.

If the helicopter crew had survived, what repercussions would they be facing?

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Anonymous wrote:FWIW I’m hearing it was simulating getting a govt official to safety as it was a COG (continuity of government) exercise.

“The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety.”

This is not secret intel, it's a direct CNN quote, so why not say so? These routine simulation exercises were widely covered in the news in the past couple of days.

"The soldiers on the Black Hawk were conducting what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as an annual nighttime training on 'a continuity of government mission.' The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety. Crew members had night vision goggles, the defense secretary said."

Ok … even if training to evacuate VIP’s is necessary, why tf was it necessary for the evacuation route to go through DCA? Makes no sense.

Since you seem to know definitively that it makes no sense, please tell us where does the evacuation route they were training on go from and to (such that it makes no sense to pass by DCA)?

There are published helicopter routes, which go right by DCA every day. They’ve been talking about this in the news since day one. It’s not that they “just decided” to go by DCA, this was one of the approved helicopter routes… training or not.

What people fail to understand is that these three crew members didn't independently decide to fly that route at that time. They were assigned. Someone else made that call.

If it was irresponsible to have a Black Hawk running that route on a training mission at that time, then that is on the higher ups who made that call.

Accidents are always possible and there are many, many examples of Black Hawks crashing and killing people. A training mission carries some risk. Even just a standard transport of a personnel to another base carries some risk and the risk goes up if you have a less experienced pilot in command, which this helicopter did.

You cannot direct anger at this helicopter crew the way you would someone joy riding on the highway. They were assigned this task and route, and the person who assigned it was better positioned than they were to know if this was an acceptable risk to take.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is one even selected as a White House social aide? I wonder if those duties took away from her flying hours. Perhaps she wasn’t getting as many flying hours as other pilots due to those duties.

Military officers in the DC area apply. You do five or six events per month: https://www.army.mil/article/273603/white_house_seeks_military_social_aide

Given that military pilots don't get a lot of flight time anyway, due to other duties, I doubt it impacted her flight time. The bigger problem seems to be that military helicopter pilots don't fly enough generally.

+1 some of these posters, truly do not understand how the military works.

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Anonymous wrote:If she was such a perfect pilot let’s see her military records and all of her flight history. When was the last time she flew before the night in question? And who was the VIP they just dropped off?

What difference does the VIP make? This question keeps getting asked but I don't get how it would matter in the sequence of events that led to the cash.

How would the crash have happened at all if a VIP didn’t not want a ride? Not sure how you can’t see that.

No one onboard the BH made that decision. They took orders.

See posts above if you really want to know why it matters to know the VIP.

The point is, the 3 onboard did not CHOOSE to get that VIP. they are being vilified.

We want to know who the VIP was to know whether it waa truly an essential VIP trip. No one is
Blaming the crew for following orders. This goes above their heads.

The pilots need to fly regularly to keep their skills and hours up. They need to fly these specific routes regularly too as part of their training- as they were doing and getting signed off on that night. If not flying VIPs they still have to fly the hours and routes needed to keep proficient, even if not flying a VIP. How to do expect them to maintain skills? You think they can just circle over some open fields a few times per week and call it good?

Are you really this dense? No one is saying they don’t need training hours - only that the VIP flight may be the reason this “training” was shoehorned into such a dangerous time and place. The MAGA brain is so low wattage. Unreal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry I know this was all a big tragedy but if I had a loved one on that plane and I found out the pilot did not flow the ATC’s instructions and just slammed into the plane I would be livid at the incompetency. And these BH pilots certainly won’t be heroes in my opinion. But I am lucky not to have known anyone on that plane.

But wouldn’t you also be mad at whoever decided it was a good idea to have training flights there?

I would have been mad about that if this crash was truly unavoidable and both the BH and AA pilots were not at fault but based on what we know so far (and I’m not saying we know it all) it seems this was completely avoidable but for the BH pilots failing to follow the directions and not looking for the plane literally coming towards runway 33. The ATC literally said go behind the plane. What were they doing??!

Anonymous wrote:How is one even selected as a White House social aide? I wonder if those duties took away from her flying hours. Perhaps she wasn’t getting as many flying hours as other pilots due to those duties.

Military officers in the DC area apply. You do five or six events per month: https://www.army.mil/article/273603/white_house_seeks_military_social_aide

Given that military pilots don't get a lot of flight time anyway, due to other duties, I doubt it impacted her flight time. The bigger problem seems to be that military helicopter pilots don't fly enough generally.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If she was such a perfect pilot let’s see her military records and all of her flight history. When was the last time she flew before the night in question? And who was the VIP they just dropped off?

What difference does the VIP make? This question keeps getting asked but I don't get how it would matter in the sequence of events that led to the cash.

How would the crash have happened at all if a VIP didn’t not want a ride? Not sure how you can’t see that.

No one onboard the BH made that decision. They took orders.

See posts above if you really want to know why it matters to know the VIP.

The point is, the 3 onboard did not CHOOSE to get that VIP. they are being vilified.

We want to know who the VIP was to know whether it waa truly an essential VIP trip. No one is
Blaming the crew for following orders. This goes above their heads.

There was a plane over their heads carrying many innocent victims. The VIP doesn't matter. What matters is why they didn't see or correct course for the plane.

Why are you such a shill for these military operations in civilian space? Yes it matters why they were doing dangerous training along a landing route. We need all the truth, not only the truth that serves your bosses.

The possibility is that if they weren’t flying VIP’s all over the area just so these shitbirds don’t have to sit a few extra minutes in traffic, then perhaps they wouldn’t have been anywhere near the plane carrying all those innocent victims. Capisce? I’m guess no.

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Anonymous wrote:FWIW I’m hearing it was simulating getting a govt official to safety as it was a COG (continuity of government) exercise.

“The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety.”

This is not secret intel, it's a direct CNN quote, so why not say so? These routine simulation exercises were widely covered in the news in the past couple of days.

"The soldiers on the Black Hawk were conducting what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as an annual nighttime training on 'a continuity of government mission.' The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety. Crew members had night vision goggles, the defense secretary said."

Ok … even if training to evacuate VIP’s is necessary, why tf was it necessary for the evacuation route to go through DCA? Makes no sense.

Since you seem to know definitively that it makes no sense, please tell us where does the evacuation route they were training on go from and to (such that it makes no sense to pass by DCA)?

You tell us. It makes no sense for the evacuation route to go through a busy civilian airport - not the least reason being then they have to train pilots in the middle of a busy civilian airport. No, as a resident of DC who has helicopters constantly over my house, I don’t accept it.

No one GAF what random internet bullies “accept”.

apparently the FAA agrees since it has suspended helicopter traffic. My view isn’t an outlier.

They resumed it for "VIPs."

The passengers were acceptable losses, apparently.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I’m hearing it was simulating getting a govt official to safety as it was a COG (continuity of government) exercise.

“The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety.”

This is not secret intel, it's a direct CNN quote, so why not say so? These routine simulation exercises were widely covered in the news in the past couple of days.

"The soldiers on the Black Hawk were conducting what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as an annual nighttime training on 'a continuity of government mission.' The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety. Crew members had night vision goggles, the defense secretary said."

Ok … even if training to evacuate VIP’s is necessary, why tf was it necessary for the evacuation route to go through DCA? Makes no sense.

Since you seem to know definitively that it makes no sense, please tell us where does the evacuation route they were training on go from and to (such that it makes no sense to pass by DCA)?

You tell us. It makes no sense for the evacuation route to go through a busy civilian airport - not the least reason being then they have to train pilots in the middle of a busy civilian airport. No, as a resident of DC who has helicopters constantly over my house, I don’t accept it.

No one GAF what random internet bullies “accept”.

apparently the FAA agrees since it has suspended helicopter traffic. My view isn’t an outlier.

They resumed it for "VIPs."

How is one even selected as a White House social aide? I wonder if those duties took away from her flying hours. Perhaps she wasn’t getting as many flying hours as other pilots due to those duties.

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry I know this was all a big tragedy but if I had a loved one on that plane and I found out the pilot did not flow the ATC’s instructions and just slammed into the plane I would be livid at the incompetency. And these BH pilots certainly won’t be heroes in my opinion. But I am lucky not to have known anyone on that plane.

But wouldn’t you also be mad at whoever decided it was a good idea to have training flights there?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I’m hearing it was simulating getting a govt official to safety as it was a COG (continuity of government) exercise.

“The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety.”

This is not secret intel, it's a direct CNN quote, so why not say so? These routine simulation exercises were widely covered in the news in the past couple of days.

"The soldiers on the Black Hawk were conducting what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as an annual nighttime training on 'a continuity of government mission.' The missions are routine: In the event of a catastrophe, helicopters are often employed to usher government officials to safety. Crew members had night vision goggles, the defense secretary said."

Ok … even if training to evacuate VIP’s is necessary, why tf was it necessary for the evacuation route to go through DCA? Makes no sense.

Since you seem to know definitively that it makes no sense, please tell us where does the evacuation route they were training on go from and to (such that it makes no sense to pass by DCA)?

You tell us. It makes no sense for the evacuation route to go through a busy civilian airport - not the least reason being then they have to train pilots in the middle of a busy civilian airport. No, as a resident of DC who has helicopters constantly over my house, I don’t accept it.

No one GAF what random internet bullies “accept”.

apparently the FAA agrees since it has suspended helicopter traffic. My view isn’t an outlier.

I’m sorry I know this was all a big tragedy but if I had a loved one on that plane and I found out the pilot did not flow the ATC’s instructions and just slammed into the plane I would be livid at the incompetency. And these BH pilots certainly won’t be heroes in my opinion. But I am lucky not to have known anyone on that plane.