Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Yeah Senator Moran said at the press conference that he was the one who lobbied to get that flight started. Weird flex in that moment?

Very weird flex.

What a devastating story, and the result of a lack of decency building over my entire life - I was in K when Reagan took out the air traffic controllers, and we’ve witnessed the irrationality of the rich and powerful deciding they could fly effectively any and everywhere, common sense in air traffic control be damned. It was avoidable and the idea that the helicopter pilot was trying to avoid one plane and hit another is just beyond comprehension.

Why did helicopter go dark BEFORE it hit the plane.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Why would the helicopter have gone dark *before* it hit the plane?

Anyone?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental problem is that the approach from upriver violates every FAA best practice for safety in order to follow the sharp curve of the river around Georgetown Landing, in order to reduce noise over residential areas and avoid protected airspace (VP mansion etc.). This removes the safety that comes from having a long-straight approach to the runway, which gives the landing pilots plenty of chance to see anything flying near them and gives helicopters relief from having a plane come whipping around the corner.

The sick irony is this all happens within site of FAA HQ.

That wasn't the approach the plane used here. It came from the south.

So is the southern approach long-straight, or does it also involve dangerous/late turns? And if so, why does it need these dangerous turns?

Long and straight from the south.

Come on. We all live here. No commercial jets are doing hairpin turns over a 200m wide river to instantly land. You fly way south over Maryland, get in the queue, then land. It’s the less “pretty” landing.

I just saw the ATC video — shows a sharp late curve to the left for the plane (as it switches from runway 1 to 33?).

It’s sounding suspicious.

Normal for that approach. You fly the runway 1 approach up the Potomac and dogleg to runway 33.

Don't want to fly over those home in Maryland or SW/SE.

Most every other major-metro airport (LGA, ORD, DTW, MDW for example) have long-straight approaches over dense neighborhoods...but in the FAA’s backyard, not?

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Yeah Senator Moran said at the press conference that he was the one who lobbied to get that flight started. Weird flex in that moment?

Very weird flex.

What a devastating story, and the result of a lack of decency building over my entire life - I was in K when Reagan took out the air traffic controllers, and we’ve witnessed the irrationality of the rich and powerful deciding they could fly effectively any and everywhere, common sense in air traffic control be damned. It was avoidable and the idea that the helicopter pilot was trying to avoid one plane and hit another is just beyond comprehension.

Why did helicopter go dark BEFORE it hit the plane.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ATC did everything right. How about some concern for those doing a highly stressful job? Yes, there are staffing shortages that everyone on this board should be concerned about. We take it for granted that flights take off and land safely every day ("safer than driving on the beltway") but do we really stop to consider how that happens and the people in the tower who make that happen? We'd all benefit from more ATCs who are well supported, materially and emotionally. I'd like to know why a training flight had to happen at night in that particular airspace.

Plus we don’t know if she’s saying that 2 seconds to impact or 1 or 2 minutes lead time.
Big difference.

For whatever reason, the helicopter cut to the west side of the river whilst adjacent DCA.
The ATCs aren't magic. They can repeatedly tell a helicopter to avoid collision but they can't actually change how they're flying. You also know the ATC who was talking to the helicopter A) is dealing with a mandatory investigation B) is likely devastated by what happened and C) is going to face blame from the media even if totally cleared and could potentially face harassment.

But why wouldn’t ATC tell the helicopter the exact location of the plane they are referring to that they are closest to colliding with? Maybe they did? But my interruption was that the call to the helicopter was vague considering at least 2-3 other planes were close by and descending

I think that’s the problem—the helo pilots were watching the wrong plane and thought they were okay.

Doesn’t it show how overloaded DCA is? Sometimes I can see a few planes at once coming from DCA, short distance one from another.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Yeah Senator Moran said at the press conference that he was the one who lobbied to get that flight started. Weird flex in that moment?

Very weird flex.

What a devastating story, and the result of a lack of decency building over my entire life - I was in K when Reagan took out the air traffic controllers, and we’ve witnessed the irrationality of the rich and powerful deciding they could fly effectively any and everywhere, common sense in air traffic control be damned. It was avoidable and the idea that the helicopter pilot was trying to avoid one plane and hit another is just beyond comprehension.

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.

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

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Yeah Senator Moran said at the press conference that he was the one who lobbied to get that flight started. Weird flex in that moment?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fundamental problem is that the approach from upriver violates every FAA best practice for safety in order to follow the sharp curve of the river around Georgetown Landing, in order to reduce noise over residential areas and avoid protected airspace (VP mansion etc.). This removes the safety that comes from having a long-straight approach to the runway, which gives the landing pilots plenty of chance to see anything flying near them and gives helicopters relief from having a plane come whipping around the corner.

The sick irony is this all happens within site of FAA HQ.

That wasn't the approach the plane used here. It came from the south.

So is the southern approach long-straight, or does it also involve dangerous/late turns? And if so, why does it need these dangerous turns?

Long and straight from the south.

Come on. We all live here. No commercial jets are doing hairpin turns over a 200m wide river to instantly land. You fly way south over Maryland, get in the queue, then land. It’s the less “pretty” landing.

I just saw the ATC video — shows a sharp late curve to the left for the plane (as it switches from runway 1 to 33?).

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.

^ And there isn't a thing on their website, either.