ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Following the deadly midair collision of a military Army Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet flight near DC, Retired Air Force Lt. Col. and pilot James Rankin talks about the collision near Washington and what it takes to maneuver the tricky airspace near DCA.
MORE on the DC airspace tragedy: www.wtol.com/a...
Very nice segment, thoughtful questions and responses with experience. Thank you! Very much appreciated.
Thanks!
It was a piece of cake. There is a crossing of flight paths, heli was told to wait and pass behind plane. It would happen in front of their noses and when they would pass plane behind, plane would land on rwy 33. Easy to see.
They did not go behind any plane, but just moved on into crossing. Then crash happened. Apparently crew was not aware at all they were crossing a flightpath of a runway.
Behind a plane. Meaningless to think that ATC was talking about a plane 10.000 feet in the sky. ATCV was talking about a plane at their height, crossing their path, and they had to wait and pass behind plane.
There was a runway and crew ignored runway.
Please explain how, with three members aboard, did this Blackhawk crew not see an airliner lit up with its bright landing lights on as it appears in front of them?
They should not have even been that close to begin with. ATC messed up. They are looking down and around not up
That helicopter, like most new vehicles are computer controlled. Remote control....I believe someone else was controlling the heli. There are many people against everything our new President is doing and they'll stop at nothing to make him look bad. Pure evil and it's been going on for years...many things will be exposed this year and those responsible will eventually be outed.
It is very easy to mistake the aircraft at night when there are multiple aircraft. It is just a tragic error.
They were probably looking at the wrong plane.
A combat Blackhawk that is more visual has a crew of 4. A VIP helicopter gets satellite info and all kinds of stuff from the command center. Flying Pentagon brass and government officials requires detecting much smaller objects than a large passenger jet. Something went terribly wrong back at Fort Belvior.
Great interview
I think in most other countries, they would opt to close the airport for commercial usage. There are so many things that can go wrong in such a congested location.
@@yo2trader539 I agree most other countries would probably prioritize a few helicopter flights per day over the 25 million passengers in and out of the nation’s capital city primary airport. Lol.
@@RS-uo2nd the primary airport is Dulles international. Not this post stamp aircraft carrier on the Potomac. This airport is totally packed and unsafe.
@@joso5554 I think you’ve heard a bunch of buzzwords in the news lately and have misconstrued points that have led you to believe dca needs to be closed to civilian traffic altogether. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you know the total handful of helicopter flights per day in the vicinity and think it’s much more safe to pack 25 million more passengers into Dulles. Maybe you think another airport an hour plus out of drive outside of DC, like Dulles, is warranted. Either way I hesitate to call peoples ideas stupid, but we’re getting really close. All of this to ignore the level of incompetence and series of individually unforgivable errors demonstrated by the female helicopter pilot that caused this first major collision in decades to begin with.
The HC was flying too high (300+ft) and too fast (nose down position)
and were short a crew member who sits on left side & looks out for that side
Pilot was inexperienced (400-500flying hrs)
ATC was not on top of collision warnings
Horrible tragedy 😟🙏🏼🇺🇸🚁✈️
There was an identical ”near miss” the week before.
I was watching Blancolirio 3 days before this incident and he was warning about the many near misses we've had all over the country... not military on civilian, but civilian on civilian
Great insight into air safety culture from this very experienced officer.
Unfortunately this specific routes mapping around Reagan airport was just a disaster waiting to happen. Near misses were not even needed to see it as a blinking red light. Sickening carelessness.
Cant replace a life so tragic
Prayers for their families! Gods comfort
The commercial airport needs to be moved. I understand the heavy military presence with the Capitol and Pentagon right there
This needs to changed no more helicopters around planes
Its just insane to have ever allowed and developed a system where military helicopters routinely can transit through, and cross a live approach path of a civilian airport. Especially for low hours training. There have to be a million square miles of free airspace in the US, in which to train military pilots, through synthetic and simulation of highly congested airspace, without playing Russian Roulette with the lives of innocent civilians. The altitudes for deconfliction here, are marginal at best! Regardless of what is the 'usual' runway in use for airline traffic, the fact it happened is entirely down to the conflict existing in the first place. Remove all the helicopter traffic from the map and the civilian passengers and crew get on with their lives and everyone goes home.
One near miss, is far too many and caused entirely by fostering a system that permits this conflict to exist. However experienced the military crew, the fact they were routing through a live ATZ, fast, low level, at night and so close in, at approx 90° to the approach path of the airport is just murderous. They would effectively be off, or at the very limits of radar at that altitude and to then have to visually maintain separation while possibly (most likely) wearing NVGs and with the cockpit tilted forward in fast forward flight, bringing the cockpit roof and panel structures into play with regards further decreased visibility.....medium to high work load....training flight for a low hours pilot, so possibly the instructor being busy with the student as well as radio, visual lookout etc etc. and whatever else was in the mission brief.....meanwhile, a CRJ having been asked to accept 33 late on, instead of 01 as originally established, has a high workload and of course ABSOLUTE PRIORITY over the military traffic....descending, at the busiest and most hazardous sector of its approach, moments from touchdown and right there is the impending disaster they cannot hope to avoid. Remove all the military elements from the zone and route them elsewhere, or if, for some really hard to believe, crazy reason, they must be there, CLOSE the airspace to all military aircraft during transit of civilian traffic. Again, 67 people get to go home to their loved ones. And a controller has their own work load reduced to acceptable levels, and does not have their own life totally destroyed by such an event.
I fail to see how any shared use of that congested airspace could ever be considered remotely adequate, let alone safe. If you cannot ensure that these aircraft can never hit each other, then there is already a huge problem. Clearly, there is now proof that the system was massively flawed from the get go. Proof that now exists in the wreckage and lives lost.
Graphic proof of a 100% avoidable tragedy. Truly shocking how narrow the margins for safety were set here.
It would be interesting to see some serious investigation journalism done here. I’m sure that hot disputes have been ongoing for years between the civilian air traffic regulation sphere and the US Army/Pentagon sphere about these totally careless helo routes directly conflicting with Reagan airport’s approach, departure and go-around trajectories.
This tragedy is the result of sickening carelessness. I hope that some top brass gets fired and criminally prosecuted.
A lot of talking with very little actual insight. You had a chance to speak about what lights look like at night and how easily it is to misidentify the traffic you’re instructed to miss, as it seems pretty clear is what happened.
Helicopter pilot took accountability and was not flying at ordered level and most likely did not even see the airplane, def at fault!
Trucking has prescribed routes for hazardous materials being transported through cities.
Helicopter got.confused between 2 planes
I wont be allowed to fly anywhere near an airport with my 249gram DJI drone...
So sad
The combat helicopters are too sophisticated not to see the other planes approaching them.. In a combat situation, do pilots pull their heads out the window?
If you don't see a commercial plane approaching, how can you see a missile approaching ?
You obviously are a couch expert in military helicopters and air safety.
Good huddle.
Airspace at dc is horrible
The first question should always be was the pilot black or a woman because the President said DEI.
@@jakelong6860 The president said color of skin or gender shouldn’t be the basis for hiring. Hiring based on skin color and gender was the policy since Biden admin took office. When you hire someone based off of skin color or anything other than merit, the wrong people black or white will cause fatalities in this field. How can you disagree with this?
It seems from these pilots, I am thinking, maybe that "u turn" or whatever should not be allowed there except emergencies. Or cant helicopters have a pad somewhere close by instead!?
only mono audio update to stereo for more views...
People they should never fly choppers around planes big mistake
Horrible Disaster
But it seems pilots have sounded the alarm on runway spacing and hyperactivity.
Not to mention low altitude maneuvering to land
Then of course crisscrossing military aircraft under the planes
Unfortunately this was no surprise.
Must be addressed and Reagan never should have been open to commercial scheduling in 1998
Unmanned drone
The helicopter was flying too high PERIOD! This was 💯the blackhawks fault!
And you know how? Wait and see before you put pen to paper. You could be legally challenged for your comments.
@ 😂😂😂 doesn’t take a genius to figure out the helicopter was too high. Only you and FAA tower don’t know
99 percent military at fault
Thanks for your service. Wondering if it was DEI ineptitude that caused this awful happening. They (those in the tower).... changed the runway at a the last moment.
DEI was not a factor. It never is, so stop saying that.
Yeah, "DEI" forced the helicopter pilot to misidentify the correct aircraft, and then "DEI" forced him to slam into a commercial jetliner... give the moronic politics a rest, huh?
@bucksdiaryfan Tell your president.
@@grettalemabouchou6779 The runway change to 33 allowed more flights to depart, it wasn’t incompetence, it was actually a good move for getting more planes in and out much more efficiently. The Blackhawk was supposed to maintain visual separation and was instructed to do so, but it looks like they were too high and not looking in the right direction.
@@bucksdiaryfan So the person hired based on their skin color, white or black, does as good as the person hired based on ability?
Never will get the truth from these experts , like the ship that crashed into the Francis key bridge Nothing ,