Different topic… question is how the helo pilot could make so many mistakes if they’re such a veteran crew…
ATC staffing is tangential
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Are you sure we are talking about the same aircraft? There are multiple reports saying the helo’s pilot saw another aircraft than the one they collided with.
I tried to follow up on the flight tracker data from flight aware as shown above… guess what… no data on AA Flight 5432 from ICT to DCA on 1/30/2025.
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Agree with you and why on earth were they training or has this training been concluded there? That makes no freaking sense. This was about to happen no matter when especially when you have an air traffic controller shortage.
At least it’s been banned now… after 67 people died…
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I don’t know the answer for sure, and it likely isn’t just one reason. I can tell you two of the contributing factors I have read.
I read that the number of controllers never quite recovered from President Regan firing a bunch when nationalizing the controllers.
The other issue is they have a mandatory retirement age at 56 which can be extended to 61 (not sure how often that is).
There are likely others. I think also there was some loss of force during the pandemic when planes weren’t flying as much.
Most of these helos flights are taken for moving officals from one area to the next. They are not necessary flights per say. They get you from one place to the next faster. That is why these helos flights exists. That in itself ought to be revised.
One of my best friend flies long distance for United. He used to fly helos and C130’s in the Marines Corps. He concurs with your assessment.
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This is the blackhawk they were flying… windows in front and left, the direction the plane came from…
But I guess the pilot was just looking right and everybody else…
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Anyway… hope we find out what really happened… and glad they banned future helo flights by this airport.
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Night vision goggles limit and confuse vision
Human error with tragic results shouldn’t be too hard to believe. A family wanting privacy at this moment during the current political climate doesn’t seem hard to fathom eithet
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Apparently, altitude as well… oh wait, they have altimeters for that…
I can definitely see why the family is with holding the nane.
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True, but 150 feet out of max altitude for that part of the helo path ain’t very big.
But OTOH, you’d think a veteran crew would be able to visually tell difference between 200 feet and 350 feet (assuming those are correct numbers relevant to this accident) .
In regards to the altimeter, do we know last time it was calibrated for this aircraft ? Maybe on these military aircraft that fly along the river, they need an additional standalone smart altimeter that can verbally and visually alert pilots when they stray from altitude restrictions in that area.
Then again, what happens if helo was at precisely 200 feet and plane went directly over the helo on its glide path at 350 feet.
Would there be significant turbulence to a helo flying thru that ?
I understand why the fanily wants that… but why is the pentagon breaking protocol… that’s the question.
I was an aviation electronics technician. … there are checks on the electronics before every flight…
If it fails the check it got sent to me to repair it…
If they were higher up I could believe the altimeter was off because they only have a certain range…
Byt at 200 - 400 feet it should be accurate
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Cool. How do you check an altimeter for calibration pre-flight ? Just curious.
All I’m saying is there are a lot of questions to be answered before assuming this was just an accident…
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No doubt, there are many questions and that’s why we have investigations. No officials should be speculating about causes imho.
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Sure i believe in waiting but I’m not sure why seeing iit as a tragic accident is flawed logic. What should we be considering more?
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I worked in intermediate maintenance so not on the plane but on a test bench after o-level techs found an issue…
You have to set the barometric pressure then do an altitude test on the ground…
If it failed they would send me the altimeter to test, calibrate or repair on my test bench.