Plane Crash In DC

I like him, he's done a couple of live streams with the Pilot Debrief channel.
Might have to add him to my list.
 
The NTSB has laid the blame squarely on the FAA


The National Transportation Safety Board found the probable causes of the midair collision last year included poorly designed flight routes and ignored warnings about risks.​
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In announcing the primary causes of a fatal midair collision over the Potomac River a year ago, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the Federal Aviation Administration had designed and approved dangerous, crisscrossing flight routes that allowed an Army helicopter to fly into the landing path of a passenger jet to calamitous results.​
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The investigating board also castigated the agency for not doing enough to respond to warnings about longtime risks to safety and found a complacent culture within the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport that relied too heavily on pilots in the airspace being able to see and steer clear of each others’ aircraft, a practice called visual separation.​
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They also determined that insufficient warnings from the air traffic controller to the pilots of the Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet involved in the crash, and altimeters that, unbeknown to the helicopter pilots, habitually gave faulty readings of altitude, also contributed to the tragic crash.​

“It’s one failure after another,” Jennifer Homendy, the board chair, told reporters during a break in the proceedings, adding: “This was 100 percent preventable.”​

The N.T.S.B. focused the brunt of its ire on the F.A.A., determining that the route the Army Black Hawk helicopter flew along the Potomac River and the landing path of American Airlines Flight 5342 were never designed to ensure separation between aircraft — and that the dangers posed by the crisscrossing paths were never adequately reviewed.​

Yup, the NTSB has ripped the FAA and ATC a new one!!
 
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And here is Juan Browne (Blancolirio) with an excellent, play-by-play explainer using the NTSB's mock-up/simulation of the view from first, the cockpit of PAT-25 (the Blackhawk helicopter), and then Bluestreak 5342 (the Bombardier CRJ-700) in the moments leading up to the crash...

 
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smartcooky said:
And here is Juan Browne (Blancolirio) with an excellent, play-by-play explainer using the NTSB's mock-up/simulation of the view from first, the cockpit of PAT-25 (the Blackhawk helicopter), and then Bluestreak 5342 (the Bombardier CRJ-700) in the moments leading up to the crash...

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I was just watching that last night

I'm expecting an update

According to a disappointing number of comments it was DEI that did it.
Any time he reports a crash that didn't have a middle aged white man piloting it was DEI thst did it.
 
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Andy_Ross said:
I was just watching that last night

I'm expecting an update

According to a disappointing number of comments it was DEI that did it.
Any time he reports a crash that didn't have a middle aged white man piloting it was DEI thst did it.
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Sad that this is the narrative being pushed. I was half-expecting The Fat Orange Turd to pull out his Sharpie and show everyone how he knows more about Air Accident Investigation than all of the NTSB, and the woman in charge must be covering up for the woman that was flying the Blackhawk.
 
smartcooky said:
The NTSB has laid the blame squarely on the FAA
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And rightly so, but part of the blame belongs to Congress. The relevant committees in Congress have pushed hard for expanding the air travel capacity of D.C. airspace. At least from some of the testimony I saw, the sentiment from Congress was, "This is what we want, FAA, and it's your job to make it work."

Andy_Ross said:
According to a disappointing number of comments it was DEI that did it.
Any time he reports a crash that didn't have a middle aged white man piloting it was DEI thst did it.
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Yes, I think that if your hot take is, "Ew, there was a woman flying the helo," then maybe you shouldn't get to be the person who regulates air travel.
 
JayUtah said:
And rightly so, but part of the blame belongs to Congress. The relevant committees in Congress have pushed hard for expanding the air travel capacity of D.C. airspace. At least from some of the testimony I saw, the sentiment from Congress was, "This is what we want, FAA, and it's your job to make it work."


Yes, I think that if your hot take is, "Ew, there was a woman flying the helo," then maybe you shouldn't get to be the person who regulates air travel.
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That seems to be over of the distinguishing marks of American political decision making.

Politicians seem to have too much power to force stupid requirements on decision making that should be left to the experts.

So governments at a high level work with the experts to make right out wrong decisions but I don't think I've ever seen the ability of individual politicians interfere so much. The "riders" randomly attached to bills that have nothing to do with the bills are the most extreme example.
 
Going back to least through the Obama admins, so ~18 years or so, what would become the MAGA GOP have done their damnest to cut industry experts out of any decision tree.
Except oil industry experts... seems they've magically become experts in everything. (Yes, I'm being a tad hyperbolic.)

Can anyone come up with an optimistic view of what this bodes for our future?
I damn sure can't.
 
JayUtah said:
And rightly so, but part of the blame belongs to Congress. The relevant committees in Congress have pushed hard for expanding the air travel capacity of D.C. airspace. At least from some of the testimony I saw, the sentiment from Congress was, "This is what we want, FAA, and it's your job to make it work."


Yes, I think that if your hot take is, "Ew, there was a woman flying the helo," then maybe you shouldn't get to be the person who regulates air travel.
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Pilots almost universally HATE having to fly into DC airspace. It is a nightmare. One major problem...and it might be one that is simply unsolvable..is that most of DC proper is a no fly zone, limiting the avenues of approach, particularly since the airports are located so close to DC proper.
Trebuchet said:
Assuming DCA is Washington National, I think it only still exists because Congress doesn't want to have to fly through Dulles. It's a massive security risk, as well as air safety risk.
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dudalb said:
Pilots almost universally HATE having to fly into DC airspace. It is a nightmare. One major problem...and it might be one that is simply unsolvable..is that
most of DC proper is a no fly zone, limiting the avenues of approach, particularly since the airports are located so close to DC proper.
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Not true.
 
jt512 said:
Not true.
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Actually, it is partially true. D.C. is one of the most restricted, highly monitored airspaces in the world. It is designated as a Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) and Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ), requiring specialized authorization for all aircraft and an absolute prohibition on unauthorized drones.


The airspace around Washington, D.C. is more restricted than in any other part of the country. Rules put in place after the 9/11 attacks establish "national defense airspace" over the area and limit aircraft operations to those with an FAA and Transportation Security Administration authorization. Violators face stiff fines and criminal penalties.​


The Flight-Restricted Zone (FRZ) extends approximately 15 nautical miles (about 17 statute miles) around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The airport is located in Arlington County, VA, four miles from downtown Washington, D.C. The FRZ has been in effect since September 11, 2001.​
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The only non-governmental flights allowed within the FRZ without a waiver are scheduled commercial flights into and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Airlines operating charter flights that support the U.S. government may land at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base or Ronald Reagan Washington National Airports without a waiver and under certain conditions per FDC NOTAM 8/3032.​
 
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smartcooky said:
The Flight-Restricted Zone (FRZ) extends approximately 15 nautical miles (about 17 statute miles) around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The airport is located in Arlington County, VA, four miles from downtown Washington, D.C. The FRZ has been in effect since September 11, 2001.​
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The only non-governmental flights allowed within the FRZ without a waiver are scheduled commercial flights into and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Airlines operating charter flights that support the U.S. government may land at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base or Ronald Reagan Washington National Airports without a waiver and under certain conditions per FDC NOTAM 8/3032.​
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The SFRA is no big deal. Anyone can fly in there after passing a brief on-line course on the flight rules.

I had forgotten how restrictive the FRZ is. However, any pilot who can pass a security screen can, without a waiver, fly in the FRZ as long as they are flying to, from, or between, the two general aviation airports located within it.

The only true "no-fly zones" in the D.C area are around the White House, the National Mall, Mt. Vernon (up to 1500 ft.), and Camp David.
 
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All that sounds pretty restrictive compared to where I learned to fly (semi-rural Kansas). There, as long as you don't accidentally stray into one of the scattered MOAs (e.g., Fort Riley), you can pretty much fly anywhere you want without thinking twice about it.

The problem with DC airspace in general and DCA airspace in particular is that its actual traffic profile doesn't match its regulatory classification. That is, it gets far more traffic of all kinds than other airspaces of its class. The reason pilots hate it is that there's a diminished control regime, which means they have to rely more on "see and avoid" visual separation rules than they do in other airspaces where there is a coordinated multi-mode TRACON posture. This vastly increases their workload. This all came up in the NTSB presentation of findings that recently took place.
 
JayUtah said:
All that sounds pretty restrictive compared to where I learned to fly (semi-rural Kansas). There, as long as you don't accidentally stray into one of the scattered MOAs (e.g., Fort Riley), you can pretty much fly anywhere you want without thinking twice about it.

The problem with DC airspace in general and DCA airspace in particular is that its actual traffic profile doesn't match its regulatory classification. That is, it gets far more traffic of all kinds than other airspaces of its class. The reason pilots hate it is that there's a diminished control regime, which means they have to rely more on "see and avoid" visual separation rules than they do in other airspaces where there is a coordinated multi-mode TRACON posture. This vastly increases their workload. This all came up in the NTSB presentation of findings that recently took place.
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I had a quick look at the Arrivals and Departures boards on FlightRadar24 a few days back. With three runways -01/19 7170ft, 15/33 5200ft, 04/22 5000ft its not a very big airport physically, but it handles an inordinate amount of traffic... about 430 departures a day, about as many as a large international airport, and a lot for an airport of that size. By comparison San Francisco handles 480 flights a day, but uses four longer runways.
 
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