Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:They aren't talking about any recoveries or survivors - I assume that means there aren't any.

No survivors

Stop spreading rumors. That info isn’t known yet.

The press conference didn’t mention any bodies recovered. Link to that.

As of last night at midnight per the EMS and police scanners they had recovered 19 bodies which either included 1 military personnel from helicopter or the 1 military personnel was in addition to the 19 victims recovered.

Anonymous wrote:There is no need for a direct flight from
National to Wichita. That airport is too congested.

I feel awful for the poor ATCs

This flight was added in 2024 for, you guessed it, a congressperson from Kansas.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no need for a direct flight from
National to Wichita. That airport is too congested.

I feel awful for the poor ATCs

The flight was fine. DCA is fine.

The issue was the helicopter.

What is with the weird anti-DCA trolling?

The Alexandria residents really really hate that airport and all the airplane noise.

It's not us. We live just south of the airport off GW. The airport was there when we bought 20 years ago. We're used to it. Let's stick to the topic.

Too many helicopters flying along the Potomac when Republicans come into power. They love their VIP rides and the pilots love to hot dog up & down the river for the VIPs. No consequences for anyone, good times back again.

No one likes dour Democrats who put the kibosh on expensive helicopter flights.

Anonymous wrote:The water is below freezing. A doctor said 30 minutes is longest they could last. I hope I am wrong.

You are wrong. The water is a few degrees above freezing. Otherwise, it would be ice. Doesn't matter though. They died during the tremendous acceleration forces in the collision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no need for a direct flight from
National to Wichita. That airport is too congested.

I feel awful for the poor ATCs

The flight was fine. DCA is fine.

The issue was the helicopter.

What is with the weird anti-DCA trolling?

The Alexandria residents really really hate that airport and all the airplane noise.

Are we still thinking DCA will be ready to go at 11:00am. Am supposed to be flying in to DCA today… Thank you.

If you ask an ATP they’ll tell you this was something we all fully expected. The holes of the Swiss cheese:

A demanding circle to land on runway 33
A published rotor route crossing the final approach
Planes and helicopters on different frequencies
Separation is visual “see and avoid”
Overworked and undertrained ATC

It’ll be 2 years but I expect the helicopter pilot will be faulted but there will be multiple contributing factors and recommendations. This was a completely foreseeable disaster. I am angry.

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that the helicopter told ATC that they had a visual on the plane, but the helo pilots misunderstood what they were looking at and crashed into them.

I’m guessing they had sight on a different plane and missed spotting this plane as it descended. They probably had sight on the one taking off or in line waiting to land.

Here is what professional commercial airline pilots are saying about this.

https://www.pprune.org/accidents-close-calls/663888-aa5342-down-dca-6.html

My guess is that the helicopter told ATC that they had a visual on the plane, but the helo pilots misunderstood what they were looking at and crashed into them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no need for a direct flight from
National to Wichita. That airport is too congested.

I feel awful for the poor ATCs

The flight was fine. DCA is fine.

The issue was the helicopter.

What is with the weird anti-DCA trolling?

NP here. It seems likely that the helicopter is fully at fault, but it's not true that DCA is fine. There has been a push to add more routes even though there were an atypical number of near-miss collisions in recent years. And the pressure to open new routes into/out of DCA comes from Congressional reps who want an easier commute to their district (including the Wichita route involved in this tragedy.)

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/29/us/plane-crash-washington-dc#the-crash-occurred-in-one-of-the-united-states-most-complex-airspaces

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They’re doing training flights over a heavily populated area around the busiest runway in the U.S.?

Doesn’t seem wise.

They do it all day every day. Spend some time on the Mt Vernon trail and you’ll see tons of helicopters - Army, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard all run helicopters up and down the river for training. Sometimes you’ll see a police helicopter (DC or Park Police) but they usually have a good reason to be there.

Yep. I live in Arlington and drive to and from DC every day- right along and across the Potomac We have seen more helicopters than usual lately. Yesterday at 2:30pm we were driving in to pick up my kid and my husband noted the giant military helicopter - over head—bigger than what we usually see

Is this due to the new dipsh@ts running things?

This is interesting to me too because last Friday I was driving on one of the many highways that encircles the Pentagon and was shaken by a surprising noise/feeling. Looked left, and there was a helicopter taking off immediately to my right, probably less than 50 feet away on the other side of the short barrier wall. Never seen this before. I don't drive in that part of VA a lot so who knows but it was startling and notable to me.

Normal. Lots of military helicopters and flights in the area. They usually avoid commercial traffic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh no. I wonder if it’s one of those control tower snafus that didn’t get caught in time.

Air traffic controllers were too distracted

There is no way you can know this.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t why miltray aircraft is allowed to fly directly under civilian instead of using separate runways.

The helicopter wasn’t using the same runway.