Wichita flight to Washington DC crashed

[ShockBand]

I heard last night from a talking head.

Blackhawks fly along the Potomac all the time. They are supposed to stay below 200 ft. However, at night, the river is completely dark, which disorients the pilots as they can't get a visual on altitude, so they generally fly higher.

Add to that it was a new moon last night, and that makes it super dark. A lot of details will come forth as the investigation unfolds. Horribly tragic for the 67 casualties and their families and friends. My understanding is that there were as many as 11 of our top youth figure skaters and their families on board, as they were participating in an advanced training camp after the US Championships.

I saw a post elsewhere from someone calling themselves "OldShocker" stating that this has a lof of feelings like the immediately aftermath of the 1970 WSU Football plane crash - the terrible wait to learn whether you know anyone who might have been on board.

[Kung Wu]

You hear lots of comments on how pilots cannot see below them, especially in a crowded airspace, especially at night. In the image below the camera is behind the pilots so the pilots can see more than what you see in this picture, but you can easily get the sense that they can't see squat that is below them if it's very close:

[shock]

This will be hung on traffic control. Almost guaranteed.

[SubGod22]

This will be hung on traffic control. Almost guaranteed.

Maybe, but twice they warned the Blackhawk about the plane and told them where to go to avoid it. Unless the helicopter followed those directions and still hit it.

[ShockerFever]

This will be hung on traffic control. Almost guaranteed.

Why?

[Kung Wu]

This will be hung on traffic control. Almost guaranteed.

I think all the experienced pilots out there pretty much agree that the helicopter wasn't where it was supposed to be.

[shock]

Why?

They are the center of communication, and the FAA is already exploiting it for more money from congress.

[SHOCKvalue]

It might be hung on the Blackhawk crew, or ATC, but another factor screams for attention. Apparently since like forever, the FAA has allowed these helos to fly perpendicular UNDER the final approach glide slope of commercial airliners roughly a mile from the end of the runways at one of the nation’s busiest airports. I mean what in the eff is that nonsense?

[BAShocker]

I don’t understand the issue of having back hawk training exercises anywhere near that airport. They can do training exercises anywhere in the U.S. Why have them in arguably in the busiest air traffic area in the U.S.?

[rjl]

Well, Trump is already blaming D.E.I. and Obama and Biden, so why ask "why" when the truth don't matter.

[SHOCKvalue]

Well, Trump is already blaming D.E.I. and Obama and Biden, so why ask "why" when the truth don't matter.

And the left is blaming Trump. I suppose you conveniently missed that, eh?

[SubGod22]

This will be hung on traffic control. Almost guaranteed.

I have read that Senator Marshall has criticized ATC for not recognizing the danger sooner. Apparently the first communication was them asking the BH if it saw the plane on approach, then about thirty seconds later gave it commands to change path to avoid a collision and the crash happened no more than two seconds after that last communication.

So, while they did communicate with the BH, maybe it should have been seen sooner. Maybe the order to change path should have been given sooner. I don't know as it's not my field of knowledge by any means.

It's still pretty unbelievable that the BH wouldn't see a plane with all of the landing lights and such on coming into its path, and you would think the instrumentation within should have alerted them to it as well.

We'll see what the NTSB has to say down the road as this is going to be heavily scrutinized from a lot of angles.

[rjl]

And the left is blaming Trump. I suppose you conveniently missed that, eh?

How is the nebulous "left" blaming Trump? Who on the left?

If you've got a few talking heads blaming Trump, vs. the actual president and Sec of Def. pulling **** out of their ass, which do you think is the bigger problem?

As I said earlier, nobody should be blaming anyone right now. There is no information known.

[SHOXAAC]

I voted for Trump but good grief dude don’t use this tragedy 14 hours in to continue with your hatred of the left. This came across to me as very disrespectful. He will have a more appropriate time down the road to judge the IQ of the previous administration’s on who they target for key air traffic control personnel.

[shock]

Well, Trump is already blaming D.E.I. and Obama and Biden, so why ask "why" when the truth don't matter.

The only way that would be true is if there were people hired in the FAA for how they look or their genitalia instead of their actual qualifications.