Airlines, airplanes and other kerfuffles

BlackSmokeRisinG said:
In true Trump fashion he was at the press conference talking about DEI hiring in the ATC world possibly being to blame for the accident. The plane's still steaming in the river and he's arguing the pitfalls of past DEI practices.

If he's not correct in some way he's really making an ass of himself on this.
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New Trump same as old Trump. One of the things I really disliked about his last time around was his knee-jerk usually inaccurate Twitter.
 
This isn't DEI, this is human factors in a high risk environment. As @Blizzard posted, a bank angle creates a blind spot. The plane was in a left hand turn for runway 33 (330 degrees), with the helo approaching from the plane's right. The plane couldn't see the helo and the helo...whatever. There are other casual factors I can see coming into play (such as background lighting). The AIB will sort this out.

My money's on the helo pilots being the primary cause of the accident.
 
AWP said:
This isn't DEI, this is human factors in a high risk environment. As @Blizzard posted, a bank angle creates a blind spot. The plane was in a left hand turn for runway 33 (330 degrees), with the helo approaching from the plane's right. The plane couldn't see the helo and the helo...whatever. There are other casual factors I can see coming into play (such as background lighting). The AIB will sort this out.

My money's on the helo pilots being the primary cause of the accident.
Click to expand...

Still hearing that the two birds should never have been at the same altitude. Makes sense that the helo would be at fault in that case.
 
AWP said:
This isn't DEI, this is human factors in a high risk environment. As @Blizzard posted, a bank angle creates a blind spot. The plane was in a left hand turn for runway 33 (330 degrees), with the helo approaching from the plane's right. The plane couldn't see the helo and the helo...whatever. There are other casual factors I can see coming into play (such as background lighting). The AIB will sort this out.

My money's on the helo pilots being the primary cause of the accident.
Click to expand...
Concur, although I'm trying not to speculate too much.

That said, ATC did ask PAT25 if they had traffic and they responded in affirmative.
ATC then directed PAT25 to pass behind the CRJ.

Why didn’t they? Did PAT25 identify the wrong aircraft? Some other factor(s)?

The investigation will determine.

Although it's reportedly been in place for years, that little ferry route (Route 4) the NG has through the approach area may be a bit sus as well, especially when DCA is routing a visual approach over to runway 33 from from the ILS for runway 01; I'm not a huge fan, then again no one asks me.

My guess is this procedure probably will see a change:
20250130_134725.jpg
 
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This is not a good look.

The internal safety report, reviewed by the New York Times, stated that the number of staff at Reagan National Airport’s air traffic control tower was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic." The controller in the tower Wednesday evening was handling both helicopters in the airport’s vicinity as well as instructing planes that were departing from and landing on the airport’s runways. The outlet noted that those jobs are typically assigned to two controllers.

The tower at DC’s closest airport has reportedly been understaffed for years, being nearly a third below targeted staff levels as of September 2023, with 19 fully certified controllers. Many controllers have had to work up to six days per week and 10 hours per day.
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https://thepostmillennial.com/break...ot-normal-at-time-of-crash?utm_campaign=64466
 
Topkick said:
Still hearing that the two birds should never have been at the same altitude. Makes sense that the helo would be at fault in that case.
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AWP said:
My money's on the helo pilots being the primary cause of the accident.
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Sure, there are other factors, but I've listened to several former Army helicopter pilots today say the Helo ceiling is 200 ft along the Potomac and this chopper was flying at least at 3-400 ft, causing the collision.
 

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