re: Plane collides with helicopter over Reagan International Airport; Looking in Potomac

If this transcript is accurate, the runway change may have been due to winds gusting to 25kts at nearly a cross wind for runway 1. (320/17G25)
Not likely out of limits but sub optimal. Whereas, runway 33 would have put them coming in with the wind.

Caveat, I saw this last night but havent heard entire audio yet. reddit

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Blue Streak 5342 is the CRJ. Pat 25 is the helo

4 mins prior to crash: "Tower, Blue Streak 5342 on Mount Vernon Visual Runway 1"

"Blue Streak 5342, Washington Tower, winds are 320/17G25 can you take Runway 33?"

30 sec pause

"Yeah we can do Runway 33 for Bluestreak 5342"

"Bluestreak 5342 (unclear) bridge make the turn for 33, cleared to land 33"

"Change to Runway 33, cleared to land 33 bluestreak 5342"

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Legitimate question for those who are saying that the helicopter likely got the plane that they were instructed to be behind confused with another. From the video, to me it looks like the other plane is ascending or taking off from the airport. The helicopter pilot should pretty easily be able to tell which planes are landing vs taking off, no? Genuinely curious as I keep seeing this theory but feel like I’m missing something which I probably am.

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The video angle and subsequent commentary is extremely misleading. The airplane taking off would have been on the opposite side of the airport. I’d say extremely low possibility he ever even saw the departing aircraft.

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A couple other planes requested to land on runway 33, so it is common enough that pilots know they can request it.

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Extremely common at DCA, because landing on 33 gives them a much quicker taxi to the gate without having to cross another active runway.

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That he begins his sentence with “As a pilot”

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there are some real quacks that they always trot out as "aviation experts" whenever there's an accident/incident, some of the dumbest comments are usually the initial ones, everyone has to be the first expert to render an opinion

I believe JIA requested 33 because at DCA they load/unload passengers on the ramp right by where they exit the runway, not entirely sure about that.

The ground video is like a rorschach test for whether or not someone has ability to spatially orient and/or put oneself into someone else's perspective. Definitely concerning if a pilot doesnt grasp that video isnt oriented in same direction of the aircraft involved.

Here’s another. Of course, these takes get thousands of views. This guy flies a single engine seaplane, & based on his profile and other posts - likely never even landed at a Class B airport, but here he is… dishing out bad info as “expert opinion.”

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The departing plane was a mile and half away by the time of the collision. It’s a race to see who can smell their own farts the most between the fake pilots of twitter. The helicopter was going to pass south of dca and the planes were departing north. It’s not possible to confuse a plane on the ground and departing north with the plane you need to stay behind when you’re passing south of the airport. Just using logic, the traffic you need to watch would be approaching ahead of you and to your left.

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What are the odds that two aircraft moving in three dimensions at about 200 feet per second, which is double and triple the length of the aircraft, hit each other?

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Big sky theory. Works everytime until it doesnt.
That's why every near miss is a safety event and military aircrews are encouraged/required to file Hazardous Air Traffic Report (HATR). Civilians have the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS).

For everyone discussing their boat collision avoidance, imagine trying to pull up at Crab Island. At some point it becomes useless because it’s giving you a thousand warnings about things that are very low threat.

Same situation with aircraft TCAS systems. With all of the airplanes moving around the point you are attempting to land on at some point the info is useless at best and distracting at worst, so the system is designed to deescalate the warnings the closer you get to landing. I E it won’t give you a “Fly Down” Resolution Advisory command below a certain altitude to try not to fly you into the ground. Certainly approaches we fly and emergency procedures direct you to switch the system to “Traffic Alert” mode only to prevent spurious and unnecessary commands.