Aviation Crashes and other FAA News

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Cockpit Technology Was Limited in Preventing Washington Plane Crash​

Aircraft were flying too low for systems to give crews voice guidance​


“…But the systems are designed to provide more limited alerts at low altitudes. Both aircraft were somewhere between 200 and 400 feet when they collided over the river, according to records viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The system stops sending explicit crash-avoidance orders to avoid prompting pilots to make potentially aggressive or startling maneuvers in a crowded field of planes landing and taking off, said Ben Berman, a former senior NTSB investigator who later flew 737s for United Airlines.

“This whole environment is visual at this point,” he said. “It’s the way it’s been done from time immemorial—you see the traffic and you avoid it visually.”

If two TCAS-equipped planes are in danger of colliding, the systems at higher altitudes will work together to navigate the aircraft safely away from one another.

It is unclear whether the Black Hawk helicopter had TCAS on board. The technology, which is required in commercial aircraft with more than 30 seats, isn’t mandatory in military helicopters. …”
 
nycfan said:
Headline from the link

Washington DC plane crash live: US army helicopter ‘was off course’​

Black Hawk aircraft was allegedly at least 100 feet higher than permitted and was half-a-mile off its agreed flight path when the collision happened over the Potomac,
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"
The helicopter pilot confirmed visual sight of the plane and the air traffic controller instructed the helicopter pilot to follow the route and go behind the plane.

But he did not follow the intended route, the New York Times reported, citing four people briefed on the matter said.

Rather, the helicopter was above 300 feet, not below 200 feet, and was at least half-a-mile off the approved route when it collided with the jet."
 
altmin said:
"
The helicopter pilot confirmed visual sight of the plane and the air traffic controller instructed the helicopter pilot to follow the route and go behind the plane.

But he did not follow the intended route, the New York Times reported, citing four people briefed on the matter said.

Rather, the helicopter was above 300 feet, not below 200 feet, and was at least half-a-mile off the approved route when it collided with the jet."
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Weird. I am not a pilot, but I don't see how you miss seeing a plane like that.
 
TullyHeel said:
Weird. I am not a pilot, but I don't see how you miss seeing a plane like that.
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I'm not a pilot either, but I can definitely see how I could do it. For me it is just so easy to lock in on one thing and miss everything else. There have been several times in my life where someone was pointing out something to me, I was looking past it at something else, and the other person literally had to walk over and put their hand on the item before I saw/recognized it. "Tunnel vision is defined as one’s tendency to focus on a single goal or point of view. The more important the goal or the more threatening a stimulus is perceived to be, the more likely a person is to focus attention on it. In the first responder arena, tunnel vision is a big deal because much of what responders do is high risk and high consequence." Hence the expression I have oft heard in my life, "(O5C40) you have got to have your head on a swivel!"
 
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I used to fly out of and into National a lot back in the 1970s. I hated every single one of those takeoffs and landings, never felt safe.
 
TitanNC said:
I sort of wish I didn’t look at that but at least we know the victims had no time to realize what was happening.
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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??
 
05C40 said:
I'm not a pilot either, but I can definitely see how I could do it. For me it is just so easy to lock in on one thing and miss everything else. There have been several times in my life where someone was pointing out something to me, I was looking past it at something else, and the other person literally had to walk over and put their hand on the item before I saw/recognized it. "Tunnel vision is defined as one’s tendency to focus on a single goal or point of view. The more important the goal or the more threatening a stimulus is perceived to be, the more likely a person is to focus attention on it. In the first responder arena, tunnel vision is a big deal because much of what responders do is high risk and high consequence." Hence the expression I have oft heard in my life, "(O5C40) you have got to have your head on a swivel!"
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The youtube video posted earlier mentioned that the pilots might have been wearing night vision goggles which can distort vision - lights of different levels can make it hard to interpret visual data.
 
Icky Mettle said:
Learned tonight that one of the passengers— a mother of two from Charlotte— was at my sister-in-law’s 30th birthday party (which was 11 years ago). I was there as well. I may have met her. She dated one of my sister-in-law’s coworkers at the time.
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Just got a text from a friend and the family lives in my neighborhood, although I do not know them.
Apparently there has been over $200k raised for the family so far.
 
BlueSteel said:
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??
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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.
 
altmin said:
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.
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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:

 
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