Air traffic controllers twice alerted the crew of a U.S. Army helicopter to the presence of an inbound American Airlines jet, with the first warning two minutes before the aircraft collided, radio transmissions show. https://wapo.st/3CzLwmS
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Exactly!! What is happening with these helicopters 🚁? I understand that they had another possible collision the day before…what has the Army said about it?!
Will Hegseth take action to prevent this type disaster? Why was the FAA Director’s job left vacant almost 2 weeks? Elon Musk??
Will Trump continue to LIE? Will Congress demand a hearing with Hegseth as focus?
@senategop.bsky.social @senatedemocrats.bsky.social
I’m going to be a conspiracy theorist for the next 4 years. This was a planned event just like any other significant event that will happen over the next 4 years as specifically stated by 47 in speeches.
When will this turn into a murder/terrorism investigation, and a not-false flag operation intended to give cover to Hair Furor FatFuck to launch a wholescale attack on our government and the very basis of our freedoms?
Planes are still taking off/landing at 1-2 minute intervals mid evening, so every helicopter pilot on the route that time of day is within 2 minutes of an aircraft. 🤷♂️
No mention of the fact the helicopter first pinged nearly the CIA in Langley, VA. Additionally, PAT is a U.S. Army mission that provides executive airlift for senior military leaders, Department of Defense officials, and other high-priority passengers. So who was on that helicopter????
It was a training flight — no VIPs onboard. When they requested visual separation, it means that they could see the plane and would keep themselves clear of it. We don’t know what caused the crash at this point. No need for conspiracy theories.
The fact that there is a recurring situation where 100-200 vertical feet constitutes acceptable "separation" is, until I hear something else, the problem here. Some or later that will inevitably go wrong due to entirely foreseeable human imperfection.
The only name I am aware of (seen reports/news on) being withheld is the female who was on the helicopter. I could be wrong but I am fairly certain...Just sharing 😉
Whereas in Europe visual separation at night isn’t allowed and technical systems are mandatory, this accident probably happened because too little technical aid was around.
The most important thing at this time, so close to the tragedy, is how can Trump twist this to a political advantage. Answers and prevention will come later.
It's obviously a male replying from the helicopter. Both guys in the helicopter were white, with an unidentified female crew member. So why are the orange turd and his drunken goon saying the crash is the fault of the DEI? (Because it wasn't)
Right in the standard approach for one of the landing paths for the very busy airport. There was a line of commercial planes waiting after the one that collided.
It could have been any two aircraft flying for any reason. The fact that one was military was irrelevant. It's just most likely the case that the helo pilot responsible for visual separation was looking at the wrong aircraft and never saw the CRJ.
Also know nothing about aviation, but I can't imagine it's a great idea to have *any* aircraft flying perpendicular to a landing path, right in front of a high-traffic runway, at the same altitude of landing flights.
Seems like common sense to me, but feel free to explain why I'm wrong.
There are thousands of flight paths that cross every day. Just like traffic intersections. Especially around airports. Both of these were routine flights that reportedly happen all the time without incident.
OK, but right at the end of a landing strip? I have to imagine is the most high-traffic and critical part of any flight path.
I'll have to take your word for it, but to me this seems less like a routine traffic intersection and more like having cross-traffic in the middle of a freeway on/off ramp.
Seems logical to me multiple aircraft would be by an airport and a military base with crossing paths. Regardless of red light or off ramp, it's a terrible tragedy I know both of us wish had not happened. My heart goes out to those who were lost and to those who live on to be comforted by memories.
Yes. Right at the end of runways and approaches and in the skies all around us all the time. The reason we on the ground aren't really aware of it is because the system works so well and crashes like this are so rare.
This is more like someone at an intersection missing a red light.
Conflicting flight paths, only 100 ft of separation between them, and flight controllers having to switch between military and civilian frequencies doesn’t make it easier.
Lots of aircraft have converging flight paths. Based on what we know at this point, it doesn't appear this issue had anything to do with the flight controllers. It had to do with a pilot not seeing the other aircraft. We shouldn't make it complicated.
Now, if we want to ask what protocol or technology can we add to better ensure a pilot with visual separation has the right plane in sight so the risk of recurence is reduced, I'm all for that discussion. Anything else is overcomplicating the true issue here.
But that IS what it boils down to. If the pilot had seen the CRJ, he or she would not have run into it. The ATC called out the CRJ twice. The Helo pilot confirmed TWICE that they had visual and would maintain separation.
I thought that too. Especially when he is asked by ETC “Do you have visual on the CRJ?” And the Blackhawk pilot responded “PAT25…Visual on the …uh…CRJ. Request visual separation.”
That was my first reaction yesterday when I saw the original distant webcam video showing another large plane crossing above and to the right of the Helicopter. Was he focusing on that plane and NOT on the plane to his immediate left that he eventually crashed into?
It seemed the helicopter had already veered out of the path of another plane just before encountering the one it t-boned.
I am surprised they couldn't see (and manoeuvre away from) the plane directly in front of them, but I am no expert either.
Everyone is saying that it is being investigated - which is right - but - nobody is talking about what videos going around shows. The Black Hawk who were obviously flying higher than allowed collided with the American Airline jet. Nobody can talk around that fact.
Hey WaPo! Why dont you tell the people how Congress forced more flights into Reagan? How the airport was already beyond capacity but, they didn't care? Their comfort was more important.
And they did not respond. 2 minutes in a helicopter is plenty of time to divert. If no communications made do you think one of them was told to keep others on path regardless? They were training for executive removal alert as if it was attacked. Fishy.
No proof BUT... What if this was a s√ic1de mission to kill someone or a group of people on the plane? The people on the airplane weren't just business or tourists. They were athletes from Russia and members of a labor union from Washington DC. 🤷♀️ Or maybe it really was just a horrible accident.
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Will Trump continue to LIE? Will Congress demand a hearing with Hegseth as focus?
@senategop.bsky.social @senatedemocrats.bsky.social
-$
-surely in part
-ABSOLUTELY UNEQUIVOCALLY YES
-absolutely unequivocally no
Nice
Whereas in Europe visual separation at night isn’t allowed and technical systems are mandatory, this accident probably happened because too little technical aid was around.
I’ll put money down it wasn’t on the same broadcast channel
Sure, but perhaps something to consider for the future because it’s a lot more crowded in the air now compared to the past.
Seems like common sense to me, but feel free to explain why I'm wrong.
I'll have to take your word for it, but to me this seems less like a routine traffic intersection and more like having cross-traffic in the middle of a freeway on/off ramp.
This is more like someone at an intersection missing a red light.
We can’t boil this down to “oh, the pilot just didn’t see a plane”.
This isn’t like someone not looking before they cross the street.
I am surprised they couldn't see (and manoeuvre away from) the plane directly in front of them, but I am no expert either.
https://bsky.app/profile/gemslawrence.bsky.social/post/3lh3antufz22a
TRUMP'S FAA
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