AA / Blackhawk Crash and other Crash and FAA News

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Whoa. From this video, it appears that the Blackhawk flew straight into the commuter jet. It's hauling ass forward. How in the bleeping bleep did the helicopter pilot not see that airplane straight ahead of him??
My guess (till we get a black box):

Helicopter person 1: "Our altitude is too high"
Helicopter Pilot: looks down at instruments to confirm as plane moves across their field of view.
 
My guess (till we get a black box):

Helicopter person 1: "Our altitude is too high"
Helicopter Pilot: looks down at instruments to confirm as plane moves across their field of view.
Only possible explanation. Still, that jet was lit up like Times Square with its approach lights. It's hard to imagine any pilot just "not seeing" that.
 
Out of curiosity, let's suppose for a minute that the pilot was actually trying to hit the plane for whatever reason. I mean, if you saw those videos without any context, you might come away with that suspicion (I am not implying that I have any such suspicion). How hard would it be? I'm guessing harder than flying a plane into a stationary target like a skyscraper, but if the copter is more manuverable than the aircraft (as it surely would be), would it be hard to set a course and hit it?

Note: again, to be clear, I am by no means saying the pilot was trying to do that. Not without evidence, and it would have to be more than circumstantial. Here I'm just asking whether it would be reasonably possible, with no other agenda.
 
Posting here on the info thread, as well as the conspiracy thread, just to clean house on one already debunked conspiracy theory:

 
Interesting detail from NTSB briefing going on now - NTSB has engaged its own licensed Blackhawk pilot to maintain their independence from the military investigation.

Cockpit voice recorder has “water intrusion” — which is not uncommon in these cases. Working on drying it out now before they can extract data. Time consuming steps but they have confidence they can get it.

NTSB has the Sikorsky helicopter black box. On visual inspection it looks intact. It is a combined black box and voice recorder.
 
NTSB guy seems like a real pro who feels pressure to defend his agency and the value of their professional investigation techniques.
 
Out of curiosity, let's suppose for a minute that the pilot was actually trying to hit the plane for whatever reason. I mean, if you saw those videos without any context, you might come away with that suspicion (I am not implying that I have any such suspicion). How hard would it be? I'm guessing harder than flying a plane into a stationary target like a skyscraper, but if the copter is more manuverable than the aircraft (as it surely would be), would it be hard to set a course and hit it?

Note: again, to be clear, I am by no means saying the pilot was trying to do that. Not without evidence, and it would have to be more than circumstantial. Here I'm just asking whether it would be reasonably possible, with no other agenda.
I think it would be fairly difficult for the helicopter to intentionally collide with the descending jet (I’m a pilot). I also don’t think they were trying to do that. I don’t think anybody wanted to die that night.
 
I think it would be fairly difficult for the helicopter to intentionally collide with the descending jet (I’m a pilot). I also don’t think they were trying to do that. I don’t think anybody wanted to die that night.
Plane would be going too fast? Or copter just not manueverable enough? Or both.

I don't think that anybody was looking to die. Just an idle question to learn a few things. I mean, maybe we find out that the guy was some crazy extremist but that seems highly doubtful and we'd need a lot of evidence to establish it as a suicide attempt.
 
Plane would be going too fast? Or copter just not manueverable enough? Or both.

I don't think that anybody was looking to die. Just an idle question to learn a few things. I mean, maybe we find out that the guy was some crazy extremist but that seems highly doubtful and we'd need a lot of evidence to establish it as a suicide attempt.
Plane going 150 mph; I think Blackhawk would likely be going around same speed. Plane is short. You would have to have Joe Montana like aim to anticipate exactly what altitude and distance you would need to hit plane at a perpendicular angle. If you were going to fly alongside the plane, I'd think it would be a lot easier.
 
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