Plane Crash Near Washington, D.C. - 67 dead

Just last week Trump fired the heads of TSA and recklessly gutted the Aviation Safety Advisory, typically, Trump is tampering with aviation matters he doesn’t understand.

Within days of taking office, Trump immediately fired the heads of the TSA and fired every committee member of the federal Aviation Security Advisory Committee, with no thought of the consequences.  The Trump administration could provide no reason for the dismissal of the committee, other than to issue the customary response that "the committee didn’t align with Trump’s agenda".  At the time of the plane crash, the FAA was also without a chief because Michael Whitaker resigned because Trump's handler, Elon Musk had attacked Whitaker and demanded his resignation. Instead of prioritizing a replacement for Whitaker, Trump focused on gutting advisory committees and firing TSA heads as the FAA struggled with dangerous staff shortages.  

After last night's tragic airplane accident, Trump blamed DEI.

Trump posted on Truth Social:

"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!"

Not sure how this even happened. They were supposed to be informed of each other.

Fixed wing airplanes have right of way over helicopters. Helicopters actually are at the bottom of the right-of-way hierarchy because they are so maneuverable and can stop on a dime if necessary. Knowing this, this puts the helicopter crew at fault almost by default. ATC also has a lot to answer for regarding a midair in busy airspace of this type. Helicopters should always be avoiding major arrival and departure corridors for airplanes.

This is a tragedy which should have been avoided and is avoided 99.99% of the time.

I seem to recall Regan firing a bunch aviation people when he got in office also.

Political Smell Permeates DC
..ebuc....

Two birds of feather, crashed together,

Regan { 81 } Trumpet { 25 },  two leaders did dump-it,

So now we guess, who will clean this mess?

.."On August 5, following the PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, the Reagan administration fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order,[13][14] and banned them from federal service for life. In the wake of the strike and mass firings, the FAA was faced with the difficult task of hiring and training enough controllers to replace those that had been fired. Under normal conditions, it took three years to train new controllers.[1][page needed]

Until replacements could be trained, the vacant positions were temporarily filled with a mix of non-participating controllers, supervisors, staff personnel, some non-rated personnel, military controllers, and controllers transferred temporarily from other facilities. PATCO was decertified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority on October 22, 1981. The decision was appealed but to no avail,[15] and attempts to use the courts to reverse the firings proved fruitless.[16]

The FAA had initially claimed that staffing levels would be restored within two years; however, it took closer to 10 years before the overall staffing levels returned to normal.[1] ""

Thank God cristo71 is ok. I was afraid that he might be one of the pilots.

There would have been zero deaths if he was at the helicopter stick.

Federal Aviation Regulations specify a minimum safe altitude of 1,000 feet over congested areas and 500 feet over non-congested areas.

Why was the helicopter at 400 ft. ?

Hey, thanks for your concern! I actually haven’t flown into DCA for 7 years. This sort of thing is a gut punch for all aviators, really. The doomed RJ didn’t have a chance no matter how OG the pilots…

Edit: it goes without saying that it’s a gut punch for everyone.

Because it's a terrorist attack. Motives unknown as of now but it looks like an intentional maneuver to kill as many people as possible.

I will be real interested to see if the pilot is a religious or political zealot of some type

I know it's early but tell us what your gut says here. I am thinking terrorist attack by an unhinged leftist or more likely a Muslim

It seems like a lack of situational awareness and failure to mitigate that lack (by slowing or stopping) on the part of the helicopter crew, perhaps they didn’t even realize they were lacking SA, and a lack of helpful information and direction from ATC. I am also hearing that ATC staffing was low.

I don’t know why the RJ’s collision avoidance system (TCAS) wasn’t triggered by the helicopter. Perhaps it was a deferred maintenance item. A similar scenario played out in the hit show “Breaking Bad.” That would have alerted the RJ to abort the landing and go around.

My prediction is that the FAA will institute mandatory VFR corridors for helicopters around super busy airports. Flight rules, as they say, are “written in blood.” I’m surprised that helicopter was flying through a landing corridor as it is, but it’s also true that the RJ had a last minute runway change.

That was after he blamed Obama.

Called it. 

Pilot was a tranny

https://www.teamblind.com/post/The-Blackhawk-pilot-in-control-was-a-TRANSWOMAN-named-Jo-Ellis-X3To84nz

Probably too busy scratching it's pseudo cu*t to notice.

Or someone else was scratching it.

Away to go.

Aviation failures tend to end in tragedies, rather than fun times.

Well that settles it then. Clearly this individual couldn't have been qualified.

Helicopter usually has two pilots.

Was it possibly intentional?

I know I will probably get roasted for saying this, but dysphoria is a mental illness with a suicide rate around 40%....

Why would a FAA medical examiner sign off on this?

You should be proud I only had to look up half of those acronyms :)

M A G A / M A Dumb Again = fear of trans people and there is long list after that. M A Dumb Again, wants to purge all ideas of diversity.

The reason so many men are homophobic is because they fear its existence --to whatever degree-- in themselves.

Im hearing that two of the air traffic controllers were doing two jobs at same time:

1} watching helicopter traffic, and,

2} watching commercial airline traffic.  Apparrenty this is was an abnormal practice for this time of day and it was due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.

History repeats itself this is so reminiscent of Regans actions in 1981 >< Trumpet { 2025 }.

Helicopter was on a standard corridor, however, this whole area is very tight/congested with traffic.

We dont know why the helicopter rose from 200 ft to 400 ft.

Trumpet and M A Dumb Again claim to know.  Only time ---not fear--  will gives us more accurate knowledge.

Suicide and killing others are two completely different things. People who are suicidal, it doesnt mean they want to kill others. Otherwise, trans would have 40% homicide rate, but they clearly dont have such homicide rate.

When I see the video with the Blackhawk racing straight for the RJ, my thought is “Geez, it almost looks intentional.” Almost. But there are three crew on the helicopter and I think intentionality is pretty implausible. It appears that the helicopter never had that particular plane in sight…

You think GP ever sits back from his screen and thinks "Wow I'm a piece of shit human being?"

I just don't understand how a person makes posts like this day in day out.

The possibility exists.

lol

Yeah, I was wondering if the other personnel would have been able to intervene if they saw the plane.

Possibility is something which both exists and doesnt.

Definitely— it is a dual control, two pilot aircraft. What is confounding is that they were on a training or proficiency check flight. NOT the place for a mission which could be accomplished more safely elsewhere!