re: Looks like a plane hit a Helicopter at DCA airport

Why would a chopper be allowed to fly across an approach flight path when a jet was landing???

Why would a chopper pilot not be sure it was clear when crossing an approach flight path?

Seems like gross incompetence….

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It looked like it came from back right/left. More from the side but still at an angle Im not sure the pilots could have seen.

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It could not have come from behind, or even the side. The helicopter is just not fast enough to keep up with a plane like that, which probably has an approach speed of 180 knots. It had to have come from the front quarter.

I’m not knocking the plane pilots, because that is something a lot of folks might miss, but technically it was their responsibility, too.

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Is this the biggest failure of a president and transportation secretary in all of US history? Yes if a Biden was still in office.

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No one was fired in ATC jfc where do you people get this stuff???

Keep your eyes open. I went to the Washington aviation authority site for statistics and past 5 year trends looked okey, covid impact on travel appropriate.

But there is an anomaly ................Military flights are included in the statistics at about one per day, which would approximate large plane activity.

There is no inclusion of helicopter or drone activity in the control airspace for Washington. No metric equals no concern by the aviation management.

I think the final report will say a lot of attention needs to be paid to activity. levels including helo and drones

Allowing helicopters around that airport final approach at night seems pretty dumb, maybe that airport should shutdown

Military helicopter with no lights on ran straight into plane FIFY

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“ I was a Blackhawk helicopter crew chief in the Army.

I was even a Flight Instructor. This means that I trained Crew Chiefs and ensured that they completed all training annually to maintain their flight ratings.

One massive responsibility we had was to be the eyes for the pilots. We handled airspace obstacle avoidance and communicated potential risks to the pilots.

Quite often we would train as a flight of 2 or 3 birds flying in formation.

It was my job to have my head out the window and tell the pilots that the aircraft behind us was "staggered right at 3 discs". (We measured close distances in terms of the diameter of our rotor discs).

I can tell you after doing this for hundreds of hours, even when you know EXACTLY where a Blackhawk is, and you have night vision goggles on, it is EXTREMELY hard to SEE the aircraft.

These birds are designed to be hard to see at night.

The red and green lights on the side get lost in the lights of the city below. The only "lights" on top of the aircraft are called "slime lights" because they are a very very very dim green.

Incredibly difficult to see.

If you are above the helicopter, even if it has it flood light or spot light (2 different lights) on, underneath it, it is still hard to see the bird because all of that illumination is below the airframe.

Another thing people should know is just how busy things can get on the aircraft.

Pilots are talking to each other about what they are observing on the instrument panels. This means neither are looking outside the aircraft.

The crew chief might be conducting a fuel check, where we would also be looking up into the cockpit at the fuel gages and the clock.

This CAN lead to moments where all 3 people on the aircraft are all looking inside the aircraft.

It's not supposed to happen that way. We are supposed to announce when we are "coming inside" or are "back outside" the aircraft. But that doesn't always happen.

Also, in cities like DC, the radio traffic is constant and can make it hard to filter out what is important for you to listen to.

Checking instruments, doing math, reading checklists, and listening to multiple radios all at the same time is HARD. Mistakes happen.

Anyone out there telling you that they find the aircraft collision to be suspect, have NEVER been in a flight crew and they have ZERO idea what they are talking about.

Ignore them all. Better yet, mock the hell out of them.

999 times out of 1000 aircraft incidents always come down to a series of pilot and crew errors.

Humans are involved. They aren't perfect.

Tonight, my heart and mind is with the families of those involved in this tragic event.

I won't join the chorus of idiots making speculations.”

Damn Trump this is not a good look. Wtf

He's going to rightly catch absolute hell for this. WTF is wrong with him here?