Plane collides with Blackhawk helicopter Washington DC

[putnam6]

That’s two of the questions that have to be answered. They’re expecting to read the CSMU from the helicopter today.

The controller was controlling several planes and didn’t call out the UH-60 to the CRJ for some reason, even though he called out the CRJ to the UH-60 several times. The CRJ crew was busy with the last minute runway change, and would have been looking for the runway and ensuring that they were lined up.

 
Hmmm, thats is an interesting tidbit of information, so the CSMU is a data and cockpit voice recorder? This should answer some questions.

I know they have said the crew had substantial flight hours but how many night flights did they have under thier belts seems pertinent and how many times did they use this route? It sounds as if this was a unique training mission supposedly a doomsday evacuation scenario of political figures. So potentially the first time? Even though the military uses that route all the time for other purposes.

[Zaphod58]

 
Hmmm, thats is an interesting tidbit of information, so the CSMU is a data and cockpit voice recorder? This should answer some questions.

I know they have said the crew had substantial flight hours but how many night flights did they have under thier belts seems pertinent and how many times did they use this route? It sounds as if this was a unique training mission supposedly a doomsday evacuation scenario of political figures. So potentially the first time? Even though the military uses that route all the time for other purposes.

They have to be certified every year. This was her annual certification.

Correct. The CSMU serves as the DFDR/CVR in one module instead of two separate units.

[quintessentone]

 
Hmmm, thats is an interesting tidbit of information, so the CSMU is a data and cockpit voice recorder? This should answer some questions.

I know they have said the crew had substantial flight hours but how many night flights did they have under thier belts seems pertinent and how many times did they use this route? It sounds as if this was a unique training mission supposedly a doomsday evacuation scenario of political figures. So potentially the first time? Even though the military uses that route all the time for other purposes.

I just assumed night flying was the same as day flying in clear skies/weather, so in effect, considering the numerous challenges of flying that route at night, specifically, the helicopter's windshield/dash/internal layout causing visual obstructions (heli nose somewhat pointing down with a panel top centre of windshield obstructing head on view), and whether or not they were wearing those Infrared goggles (which supposedly makes it worse when there are too many lights), their flying hours can be reduced dramatically for night flying.

[putnam6]

Interesting comments from X.com

Thenewarea51

@thenewarea51
There is a temporary RA “Restricted Area” over the Potomac that extends from the surface to 18,000 feet. This basically prohibits any helicopter operations to be conducted between the Memorial Bridge and the Wilson Bridge along the helicopter Route 1 and Route 4. There are some exceptions, MARINE ONE will transit this RA but a ground stop is put into place at Reagan National meaning no take-offs or landings will take place during this time. If the US has an emergency where the Continuity Of Government - COG (UH-1N) helicopters from Andrews AFB were called into action, a ground stop would probably already have been called into to place before they launched and most likely they’re not going to ask for any permission to transit any airspace to get their mission done like MARINE ONE. Also Runways 04/22 & 15/33 are closed until a week from today, the RA over the Potomac is in place until March 31st. It’s going to be interesting to see what the FAA does here but something has to change. If I was in charge, I’d abolish multiple tower frequencies, we should all be on the same freq. I would require all helicopters to have some kind of TCAS or traffic alerting system operating on these routes like how many civilian operators are required to have a HTAWS. I no longer want to see military operators having just a iPad and a Sentry ADS-B device suction cupped to their windscreens, it’s crazy.

[Zaphod58]

Interesting comments from X.com
[Image: https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/160...bigger.jpg]
Thenewarea51

@thenewarea51
There is a temporary RA “Restricted Area” over the Potomac that extends from the surface to 18,000 feet. This basically prohibits any helicopter operations to be conducted between the Memorial Bridge and the Wilson Bridge along the helicopter Route 1 and Route 4. There are some exceptions, MARINE ONE will transit this RA but a ground stop is put into place at Reagan National meaning no take-offs or landings will take place during this time. If the US has an emergency where the Continuity Of Government - COG (UH-1N) helicopters from Andrews AFB were called into action, a ground stop would probably already have been called into to place before they launched and most likely they’re not going to ask for any permission to transit any airspace to get their mission done like MARINE ONE. Also Runways 04/22 & 15/33 are closed until a week from today, the RA over the Potomac is in place until March 31st. It’s going to be interesting to see what the FAA does here but something has to change. If I was in charge, I’d abolish multiple tower frequencies, we should all be on the same freq. I would require all helicopters to have some kind of TCAS or traffic alerting system operating on these routes like how many civilian operators are required to have a HTAWS. I no longer want to see military operators having just a iPad and a Sentry ADS-B device suction cupped to their windscreens, it’s crazy.

The problem is that TCAS and other systems can only work above certain altitudes. The current system partially inhibits resolutions below 1000 feet, and completely inhibits audible alerts below 400 feet. Otherwise you’d be getting constant alerts on approach from aircraft on the ground.

[Zaphod58]

None of that matters because she was not in command of the helicopter and did not make the final decisions.

Based on the radio calls, she was the pilot flying at the time. Her gender is utterly irrelevant, but she was almost certainly the pilot flying, with the other pilot the pilot monitoring.

[quintessentone]

Based on the radio calls, she was the pilot flying at the time. Her gender is utterly irrelevant, but she was almost certainly the pilot flying, with the other pilot the pilot monitoring.

Based on radio calls, she was not the one making the decisions or saying that she sighted the plane.

[Zaphod58]

Based on radio calls, she was not the one making the decisions or saying that she sighted the plane.

The pilot making the calls wasn’t making them on his own. That’s not even close to how it works. The Pilot Monitoring is monitoring instruments and radios, the Pilot Flying is in command of the aircraft. When the tower called out the CRJ BOTH pilots in the UH-60 would have looked, and conferred with each other. Once the Pilot Flying had it in sight, they tell the Pilot Monitoring, and he gets on the radio and says traffic in sight. Any decisions with the aircraft are made by the Pilot Flying, which could be either, but at that point was her.

[quintessentone]

The pilot making the calls wasn’t making them on his own. That’s not even close to how it works. The Pilot Monitoring is monitoring instruments and radios, the Pilot Flying is in command of the aircraft. When the tower called out the CRJ BOTH pilots in the UH-60 would have looked, and conferred with each other. Once the Pilot Flying had it in sight, they tell the Pilot Monitoring, and he gets on the radio and says traffic in sight. Any decisions with the aircraft are made by the Pilot Flying, which could be either, but at that point was her.

The thing is Zaph is that she was a trainee, not an equally experienced pilot and being in that less experienced position it seems to me to be very doubtful that she conferred as you think she did. Anyway, we have to wait for the official investigation findings because all we are doing here is speculation.

[Zaphod58]

The thing is Zaph is that she was a trainee, not an equally experienced pilot and being in that less experienced position it seems to me to be very doubtful that she conferred as you think she did. Anyway, we have to wait for the official investigation findings because all we are doing here is speculation.

No she wasn’t. She was a fully qualified UH-60 pilot. They’re required to do annual certification flights, which is what this was. Even if she was being trained, they still confer exactly like a regular crew. You don’t have a pilot flying that doesn’t have all the information they need, like where the hell oncoming traffic that could pose a problem is located at.