Plane crashes into another plane near Reagan International

[Indus]

Passenger jet collides with helicopter while landing at Reagan Washington National Airport, FAA says

A passenger jet has collided with a helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington.

apnews.com

Some rumors on Xshite that it was a domestic plane with a military aircraft but nothing confirmed as yet but there's definitely something going on as all takeoffs and landings halted.

 

[Hans Gruber]

The CRJ700 was on final approach when a H-60 flew into the right side of the regional jet. They have a bunch of HD cameras trained on the airport and river with footage. For a crash like this, timing has to be perfect. Otherwise it would have been a near miss.

 

[hal2kilo]

The CRJ700 was on final approach when a H-60 flew into the right side of the regional jet. They have a bunch of HD cameras trained on the airport and river with footage. For a crash like this, timing has to be perfect. Otherwise it would have been a near miss.

Perspective is really compressed so it could have been the H-60 flew into the approach path of the Bombardier. Some commentators were trying to say the small object caught up with the jet. Not happening.

 

[Wreckem]

Why was a military Blackhawk in the approach path of DCA?

 

[Hans Gruber]

Perspective is really compressed so it could have been the H-60 flew into the approach path of the Bombardier. Some commentators were trying to say the small object caught up with the jet. Not happening.

That's exactly what happened. The Blackhawk should have never been flying into the approach of an active runway. Considering the flying speed of both aircraft. A midair collision is really unfortunate timing.

 

[hal2kilo]

Why was a military Blackhawk in the approach path of DCA?

Support Marine contingent for WH, Fort Myer is just northwest of the Pentagon, oh yea, the Pentagon, to name a few. It's a very busy flying corridor, complicated by noise abatement that makes approaches fly up or down the Potomac.

 

[Wreckem]

Support Marine contingent for WH, Fort Myer is just northwest of the Pentagon, oh yea, the Pentagon, to name a few. It's a very busy flying corridor, complicated by noise abatement that makes approaches fly up or down the Potomac.

So do you think it was pilot error or air traffic control error?

 

[Jaskalas]

Why was a military Blackhawk in the approach path of DCA?

The video makes it look very intentional. Pilot of the copter clearly saw the airliner.
Wonder who the pilot was....

 

[Wreckem]

The video makes it look very intentional. Pilot of the copter clearly saw the airliner.
Wonder who the pilot was....

Reports are saying the call sign for Blackhawk designates it as VIP transport for military and DOD high level officials. Army is saying no VIPs on board just the three standard crew members.

 

[hal2kilo]

So do you think it was pilot error or air traffic control error?

Really don't know. I don't know how visible landing lights are from a side view. Seems the copter should have seen it.

 

[Brainonska511]

Good thing we have lots of adults in charge at the DOD and in the White House /s.

 

[Hans Gruber]

In theory, the CRJ-700 pilots would have had to ignore their TCAS warning system messages. It would say climb or descend. Pilots are supposed to put their lives in fully trusting TCAS. The Blackhawk was clearly at fault but TCAS should have prevented the collision. I can only imagine the pilots were so close to the runway threshold that they thought the TCAS warning was an error or ignored it.

 

[Indus]

Good thing we have lots of adults in charge at the DOD and in the White House /s.

Yeah I have so many questions and zero confidence in the answers being good.

 

[Brainonska511]

In theory, the CRJ-700 pilots would have had to ignore their TCAS warning system messages. It would say climb or descend. Pilots are supposed to put their lives in fully trusting TCAS. The Blackhawk was clearly at fault but TCAS should have prevented the collision. I can only imagine the pilots were so close to the runway threshold that they thought the TCAS warning was an error or ignored it.

I don't know how this system works, but a quick perusal of the Wiki on it leads me to ask: wouldn't it only work if the transponder in the helicopter is also turned on?

 

[Hans Gruber]

I don't know how this system works, but a quick perusal of the Wiki on it leads me to ask: wouldn't it only work if the transponder in the helicopter is also turned on?

Yes, you need a transponder turned on.

 

[Brainonska511]

What could go wrong with all those firings?

 

[UNCjigga]

Social media having a field day over the fact that Hegseth was whining to Jesse Waters about returning to a “merit based military” and how “diversity is not our strength” when the chopper hit the plane.

 

[Brainonska511]

Information regarding American Eagle Flight 5342

American Eagle Flight 5342 en route from Wichita, Kansas (ICT), to Washington, D.C. (DCA) was involved in an accident at DCA. The flight was operated by PSA Airlines with a CRJ-700.

news.aa.com

64 people on board (60 passengers + 4 crew)

 

[Indus]

Information regarding American Eagle Flight 5342

American Eagle Flight 5342 en route from Wichita, Kansas (ICT), to Washington, D.C. (DCA) was involved in an accident at DCA. The flight was operated by PSA Airlines with a CRJ-700.

news.aa.com

64 people on board (60 passengers + 4 crew)

sigh..

Hope there are survivors but.. that's asking a lot!

 

[Wreckem]

sigh..

Hope there are survivors but.. that's asking a lot!

Anyone that survived the crash(not likely many) and hasn’t been recovered yet will be approaching death by hyperthermia at this point.

 

[Brainonska511]

From some stuff I saw on r/avaition (relayed through social media) and repeated in the Boston Globe article quoted below, it sounds like the helicopter was under visual flight rules... I'm not an expert here, but that seems kind of dangerous to do near a runway approach at a busy airport at night.

"Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asks the helicopter if it has the arriving plane in sight. The controller makes another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that the two aircraft collided."

 

[trenchfoot]

The only thing I'm wondering about is when Trump is going to be blaming Biden for it happening on Trump's watch.

The rest of it is to watch this tragedy unfold into hearing about the many family members and loved ones that were lost to what should have been and avoidable incident. So sad.

 

[Kaido]

American Airlines flight (64 people: 60 passengers and four crew members) collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter (3 soldiers) on a training flight near Reagan National Airport over the 35-degree Potomac River outside of Washington, DC

Terrible

 

[skyking]

Helicopter flights operate under VFR the vast majority of the time.
That is complicated airspace in the extreme, with the Prohibited and restricted airspaces around the capital.
What I see is a breakdown in position awareness by the helicopter crew. Sometimes pilots will see a further aircraft and think that is the one being referenced by ATC, and overlook the nearer target.
They'll have some national security reasoning for operating opposite direction flights across an approach path in the first place. Hopefully that gets reconciled and they knock that shit off.
There are ways to handle local VFR traffic at a busy airport. VFR corridors that cross the approach numbers at ~1500 AGL keep a good separation, for example.
We do that at SEA, flying right across the active runway.
coming along the river at the vector they had, this was bound to happen some day.

 

[K1052]

A week ago…