From a question to Grok:
The flight ceiling for helicopters near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., particularly in designated routes like Helo Route 4, requires helicopters to maintain an altitude of 200 feet or below in certain areas. Posts on X suggest that helicopters are supposed to remain at a very low ceiling ranging from 150 to 200 feet in this area.
- The DC collision was at approximately 350 feet. Why was the helicopter flying in restricted airspace?
- Why didn’t the air traffic controllers tell the jet to abort the landing and gain altitude due to the helicopter’s infraction?
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https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1884827088437264387
Playback from official Air Traffic Control radar
If this is right, how is it NOT intentional?
That’s what I thought. It looked like the chopper turned right into the plane.
because it was, by definition, an accident.
to answer Mr. Renegade’s questions
there is no such thing as “ a routine training mission. “
i wonder if the NTSB will have the balls to say anything about “ noise abatement “ procedures at Reagan National ( KDCA ). don’t want those choppers or jets disturbing the disturbable residents in dc. it was a contributing factor. main fault will be placed on the chopper pilot. sometimes shit just happens, and with aircraft everyone hears about it.
How Many Americans Died Of Fentanyl Yesterday ? no one gives a rats ass about that.
Matt Bracken has as good of an explanation as anything the NTSB will come up with in a year and a half.
” My first take. Total guess.
*When the tower asks the Black Hawk if they see the passenger jet, the helo pilot says yes, but he or she is looking at another jet that is at a higher altitude.
*The jet on final approach that was struck was less than 400′ above ground level, so it was lost to the helo pilot in the “light clutter” against the background of Washington DC.
*The pilot was staring at the wrong plane when he reported “I see it.” So the tower thought, okay, it’s under control.
> Classic FUBAR confused tower communication aviation collision situation.
Sounds about right. The military helicopters need to be relocated. Away from the commercial routes.
Matt Bracken and you are guessing that the pilot was looking at another jet. You did not answer the question of why the helicopter pilot was above his 200 foot ceiling at 350 feet. That is not a guess but it is a fact.
he effed up
been there, done that. it happens. i’m glad i didn’t get any closer to that 747 than i did, a little less than 1,000 vertical separation, head on. the closing rate is visually very startling at the end.
It was either intentional, or [more likely] gross incompetence on the part of the chopper pilot, in addition to the tower. There are multiple redundancies in place to prevent such occurrences as these. When I flew years ago, when you were not taking or landing at an airport, you flew directly over it if you were that close. The chopper pilot was directly in the flight path of landing aircraft at a clearly approach altitude. Absolutely inexcusable. Unfortunately now 67 people are dead because of the error of one, and perhaps two individuals.
are you familiar with the noise abatement procedures at KDCA ?
you’re correct, though. this isn’t supposed to happen. and that, my friend, is a very long list.
Purly intentional.
So IFF should have been on and broadcasting. They run S mode.
Air traffic control fucked that up. I say that and all I know is that the plane was on approach and somehow had a collision with an army helicopter.
We wait to see what the report says.