American Airlines CRJ-700 collides with helicopter near Reagan National (22 Viewers)

[DaveXA]

My son is supposed to be flying out of DCA today. Airport is apparently closed and will reopen at 11 am and his flight was delayed several hours and will be flying out later this afternoon. Hopefully he'll be able to. This is his first time flying alone and he'll meet us in Arkansas for a family thing.

We originally had all planned to fly down last night but decided it would be cheaper to drive. Surreal waking up to this news.

 

[Madmarsha]

So my question now is the 2 other soldiers aboard the flight, did they see what was going wrong with the pilot right before this happened? Obviously none of the pilots on the plane had any clue what was about to happen. I dunno, I'm just obsessed with people's last thoughts in that final moment as they realize it's about to happen.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Not sure if this could have had any effect on the outcome of this, but didn't the head of the FAA resign abruptly like 2 weeks ago because of some power struggle with Elon Mush who was targeting the FAA for cuts under his Dept of Efficiency title?

It seems unlikely (along with the hiring freeze of air traffic controllers) or anything else. It does not appear that what caused this crash was a lack of coordination or communication of air traffic control or the airport in general. The plane and helo were correctly tracked, the helo was properly notified. It looks to be error on the helo pilot's part.

So, from a process review standpoint, the biggest failing is allowing training runs in front of a busy airport.

 

[efil4stnias]

Not sure if this could have had any effect on the outcome of this, but didn't the head of the FAA resign abruptly like 2 weeks ago because of some power struggle with Elon Mush who was targeting the FAA for cuts under his Dept of Efficiency title?

re: investigation- thats NTSB.

any subsequent rules/restrictions would then come from FAA. So i dont think that this accident and resulting changes would be delayed due to no FAA director. Someone has to have the authority to enact new rules/regulation changes.

 

[DaveXA]

It seems unlikely (along with the hiring freeze of air traffic controllers) or anything else. It does not appear that what caused this crash was a lack of coordination or communication of air traffic control or the airport in general. The plane and helo were correctly tracked, the helo was properly notified. It looks to be error on the helo pilot's part.

So, from a process review standpoint, the biggest failing is allowing training runs in front of a busy airport.

Definitely. I figured training runs would be clear of civilian traffic. I see helo traffic in that area all the time, but had no idea there would be training runs that cross civilian flight paths/approaching major airports.

 

[Rysilk]

Not sure if this could have had any effect on the outcome of this, but didn't the head of the FAA resign abruptly like 2 weeks ago because of some power struggle with Elon Mush who was targeting the FAA for cuts under his Dept of Efficiency title?

Yes and no, it wouldn't have any effect on this whatsoever. Six months from now maybe, depending on personnel changes in the next month or so. Changes in government do not have this fast of a ripple effect. Plus, and I could be wrong, it was the head of the TSA, which has no connection to this type of activity.

 

[Devildog]

You could get clearance to cross into an approach path of an airport as long as you are doing it quickly and without delay. It happens all the time especially in cities where there's a lot of air traffic. We do it here in DFW, but we're also at lower altitudes (GA aircraft). My guess is the pilot was at the wrong altitude.

I just saw an update with Pete Hegseth who said it was a routine training mission with an experienced crew and they were on NVGs. Still , just because you're experienced doesn't mean you don't make mistakes.

What an all around sheet show.

 

[superchuck500]

My opinion is that the Blackhawk pilots were either confused or disoriented. That happens at night when spatial awareness is very low if you're not used to it. When I flew in the Marines as a CH-53E crew chief, we always flew "dark" (no outside lighting) when we were flying on NVGs. Once we were transitioning back to base over residential areas and in the proximity of John Wayne airport in Orange County, we turned all of our anti-collision lights on like what you would normally do for any GA or commercial aircraft.

I do not know if they were on NVGs during the flight, but if the lights were off, I have to assume they were.

I’m not entirely sure what “dark” flying means but you can see the Blackhawk’s lights in the video as it approaches and then collides with the CRJ.

 

[porculator]

Some pics I took from the ATC tower at DCA a few years back. There is just so much stuff around DCA and they keep adding more and more flights (either getting waivers from FAA or just changing the rules for it) and this almost seemed inevitable. Pilots make mistakes, and in this case it seems that the heli pilot mistook a larger plane further away for the ERJ that he was supposed to be avoiding (due to size of plane the lights would look similar in the dark with the larger one further away)
My impression of the ATC process itself is that it was very "analog". Just a bunch of folks who had a process that worked that seemed like organized chaos to an outsider. I often think about the transition from some of the boomer "old heads" to younger folks with shorter attention spans and less ability to focus, in regards to the critical mundane jobs like this that keep the world running.

Looking north at DC -



Looking east - runway 33 with Joint Base in the background

 

[efil4stnias]

Some pics I took from the ATC tower at DCA a few years back. There is just so much stuff around DCA and they keep adding more and more flights (either getting waivers from FAA or just changing the rules for it) and this almost seemed inevitable. Pilots make mistakes, and in this case it seems that the heli pilot mistook a larger plane further away for the ERJ that he was supposed to be avoiding (due to size of plane the lights would look similar in the dark with the larger one further away)
My impression of the ATC process itself is that it was very "analog". Just a bunch of folks who had a process that worked that seemed like organized chaos to an outsider. I often think about the transition from some of the boomer "old heads" to younger folks with shorter attention spans and less ability to focus, in regards to the critical mundane jobs like this that keep the world running.

Looking north at DC -



Looking east - runway 33 with Joint Base in the background

boy your handwriting needs some work

 

[efil4stnias]

You could get clearance to cross into an approach path of an airport as long as you are doing it quickly and without delay. It happens all the time especially in cities where there's a lot of air traffic. We do it here in DFW, but we're also at lower altitudes (GA aircraft). My guess is the pilot was at the wrong altitude.

I just saw an update with Pete Hegseth who said it was a routine training mission with an experienced crew and they were on NVGs. Still , just because you're experienced doesn't mean you don't make mistakes.

What an all around sheet show.

So NVGs with all the street, building, runway, air traffic lights around? damn.

Question, having never used NVGs- but seems plausible, depth perception/spatial awareness issues?

 

[Devildog]

So NVGs with all the street, building, runway, air traffic lights around? damn.

Question, having never used NVGs- but seems plausible, depth perception/spatial awareness issues?

Definitely depth perception issues as well as spatial awareness limitations. It gets better the more you fly and train, but it's a perishable skill. Most of the time we wouldn't use them over the cities just because it would wash out everything, so we'd fly VFR and transition to NVGs as we got out of the city.

 

[efil4stnias]

Definitely depth perception issues as well as spatial awareness limitations. It gets better the more you fly and train, but it's a perishable skill. Most of the time we wouldn't use them over the cities just because it would wash out everything, so we'd fly VFR and transition to NVGs as we got out of the city.

and they are "goggles" so left/right field of view is limited ( unless looking directly at the object ) and even then, i can imagine the depth issue unless you stay on that object to determine speed/heading etc.

Just glancing at wont give you enough information.

what a terrible, tragic accident.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[baarbogast]

Grainy video of the crash.

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