DC plane crash

GreyGhost

GreyGhost

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Police helicopter vs CRJ midair on approach to Reagan. Condolences to those that lost their lives in this.

toronto.citynews.ca

Passenger jet, helicopter crash in midair near Washington's Reagan Airport: FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration says a commercial airliner has collided with a Blackhawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. All takeoffs and landings have been halted at the airport. According to the FAA, American Airlines 5342 from Wichita collided with the...
toronto.citynews.ca toronto.citynews.ca

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884792570649120772
 
RIP and condolences.
 
Ugh. So tragic. You would think that with today's technology this would never happen. But it does.
 
Wingboy said:
Ugh. So tragic. You would think that with today's technology this would never happen. But it does.
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Maybe some of the technology failed.

What are the chances of a mid air collision? I think the odd of winning the lottery are better.
 
oioioi said:
Maybe some of the technology failed.

What are the chances of a mid air collision? I think the odd of winning the lottery are better.
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Surprisingly high. Although the sky is big, on the approach path there is a lot of traffic. TCAS only works well when both aircraft have it. With only one having TCAS, it may alert but can't provide a conflict resolution. Visibility sucks out of the jet, you would have no idea which way to move to safety. YRP helicopters have tcas but I don't think all do.

Some reports say police helicopter, some say Blackhawk. Do the police have a Blackhawk? Would military have tCAS? Seems unlikely.
 
GreyGhost said:
Surprisingly high. Although the sky is big, on the approach path there is a lot of traffic. TCAS only works well when both aircraft have it. With only one having TCAS, it may alert but can't provide a conflict resolution. Visibility sucks out of the jet, you would have no idea which way to move to safety. YRP helicopters have tcas but I don't think all do.

Some reports say police helicopter, some say Blackhawk. Do the police have a Blackhawk? Would military have tCAS? Seems unlikely.
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Yeah I was thinking, don't they stack the planes at altitudes for landings? This was near the airport right? I believe it.
 
Evoex said:
Yeah I was thinking, don't they stack the planes at altitudes for landings? This was near the airport right? I believe it.
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Helicopter wasn't in the pattern but appeared to be in controlled airspace. Time will tell what it was doing there, whether it was given clearance r whether the plane was well below where it was supposed to be.

NTSB will be on-site soon and they are good about releasing factual information quickly. Final reports take years.

Edit:

Faa says military Blackhawk and not only was tcas not in play, it had transponder off so crj would have had no alert and even atc would be light on data. US is forcing transponder use on almost every plane but the military is flying around in the dark near airports. The mind boggles.

Apparently 60 passengers and four crew on crj. No news on how many in helicopter.
 
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A few times a year we have private Cessna's fly over our dz sightseeing. The follow up usually reveals that they didn't have thie ears on. Scary.
Download flightradar24 you'll be amazed what's out there.
 
I don't have an active subscription anymore so I can't personally check audio but it will come out tomorrow. ATC was talking to helicopter and told it to pass behind the CRJ (although that command may have come too late).

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14 bodies and 4 survivors so far. That's better than I expected. RIP.
 
When you approach Regan you make "The Turn" and follow the Potomac, so aircraft are always over water when landing there. Miss the turn, and you may get shot down.
 
RIP to the families. That's a horrible way to go.

Shocked that a military helicopter can just cruise along a busy flight path. One would figure that there would be a better system than to fly in front of a flight path.
 
mimico_polak said:
RIP to the families. That's a horrible way to go.

Shocked that a military helicopter can just cruise along a busy flight path. One would figure that there would be a better system than to fly in front of a flight path.
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It is sounding like a crapshow. Training flight to familiarize a new pilot with flying in busy restricted airspace at night and transponder off. Hopefully enough people died to force a rapid change to all military aircraft require adsb on at all times other than in war.
 
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GreyGhost said:
It is sounding like a crapshow. Training flight to familiarize a new pilot with flying is busy restricted airspace at night and transponder off. Hopefully enough people died to force a rapid change to all military aircraft require adsb on at all times other than in war.
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Seems like a ridiculous way to train someone.

Just casually reading and apparently that is very common there. Lots of helicopter traffic weaving in b/w landings and take-offs.

No surprise that it happened eventually.
 
It's reported that the plane had a bunch of Russian figure skaters on board. Along with a bunch of other Russian nationals.

RIP but I wonder how the Russian media will spin this.
 
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