American Airlines CRJ700 crash in DC

[Uther]

RIP

 

[~Mike~]

 

[Ayahuasca]

Scanner chatter: There are some they won't be able to recover until daybreak. They are submerged, still buckled in their seats.

RIP

 

[MartinPrince]

I've taken photos of planes taking off and landing from that airport.

I feel for all involved and hope there are some survivors. The Potomac is freezing cold this time of year so even if you'd survived impact and landing, you've only got ~15min + before hypothermia gets you so hopefully the response was very swift.

 

[Destination]

was the plan coming in to land or taking off?
was chopper from same airport, or already in the air?
just looking for info

 

[VincentHanna]

I'm immediately jumping to the conclusion that the helicopter pilot

A) had a medical emergency
Or
B) Decided to murder / suicide deliberately

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Sounds like ATC did all they could to intervene.

 

[BUDFORCE]

I'm actually surprised these things don't happen more often, non deliberately I mean, given the amount of air traffic these days.

 

[Grim5]

I'm actually surprised these things don't happen more often, non deliberately I mean, given the amount of air traffic these days.

That's what GPS and Radar is for, believe it or not you can use your radar to avoid other aircraft and your plane will even start beeping at you if you get too close to another object

But you can only do so much, there is no solution for human error

 

[200sols]

Was the plane not on final approach though according to reports? The glide slope doesn’t seem like a great place for the helicopter to be. Strange the helicopter didn’t respond to ATC.

One of the routes does pass over the final for this runway yes. Plane was just landing, helicopter was cleared to pass behind the CRJ under visual separation, obviously we dont know why they collided yet.

On a seperate point about US ATC, there have been many near misses and dodgy incidents over the last couple of years out there.

 

[Scuzi]

Was the plane not on final approach though according to reports? The glide slope doesn’t seem like a great place for the helicopter to be. Strange the helicopter didn’t respond to ATC.

It’s actually a very common procedure worldwide, including here in the UK. The only difference is that we and pretty much the rest of the world don't employ it at night, only during daytime VMC.

VFR/IFR integration on final approaches has been a mid-air collision hotspot in terms of risk management for a number of years now across Europe due to a series of events that almost ended up like this. It’s where aircraft get closest together with minimal protections (e.g. TCAS RAs are suppressed) and with visual separation being the responsibility of the pilot of the crossing aircraft, frequently an amateur or recreational pilot too.

 

[The Funktopus]

That's what GPS and Radar is for, believe it or not you can use your radar to avoid other aircraft and your plane will even start beeping at you if you get too close to another object

But you can only do so much, there is no solution for human error

The radar on a commercial aircraft is a weather radar, not and air-air radar. There is a system called TCAS, which relies on the relevant equipment being installed on both aircraft. Not sure a helicopter designed for use on the battlefield will have been fitted with these.

 

[GGizmo]

A very surprising story to wake up to.

RIP to all involved.

 

[bingham67]

Dosnt look like to be any fog or bad conditions, the helicopter is flown right into the side of the plane that is madness, I was expecting to watch the video and it taking off and the heli going upwards into the plane.

Was the helicopter taking off from a military base or at the same airport?

 

[Kenai]

This was an excellent video and well worth the 7m30s it takes to watch it, it answers or at least addresses almost every question i've seen people post in here

 

[bingham67]

Oh according to the video the helicopters are allowed to dart across the approach wow surely that a recipe for disaster at somepoint?

 

[StriderX]

I suppose it's possible the chopper had instrument failure, but I can't help but think there may be a not insignificant chance the pilot was either at the end of their thread or under the influence since having something like a heart attack whilst not impossible seems more unlikely to me.

 

[Scuzi]

Oh according to the video the helicopters are allowed to dart across the approach wow surely that a recipe for disaster at somepoint?

It’s more controlled than “darting across”. It’s a relatively standard practice globally, although it is used much more frequently with fewer restrictions and procedural constraints in the US.

I suppose it's possible the chopper had instrument failure, but I can't help but think there may be a not insignificant chance the pilot was either at the end of their thread or under the influence since having something like a heart attack whilst not impossible seems more unlikely to me.

Whilst the pilots may use their TCAS display for situational awareness, separation in this scenario is achieved with visual acquisition of the conflicting traffic by the helicopter crew and maintaining visual contact whilst manoeuvring behind. For whatever reason, it didn’t work on this occasion.

 

[MissChief]

This was an excellent video and well worth the 7m30s it takes to watch it, it answers or at least addresses almost every question i've seen people post in here

Going by the video the jet pilot did nothing wrong whatsoever. They were on a standard approach as directed by ATC. It's looking like, at least initially, the chopper pilot is at fault.

 

[LiE]

Yep sounds like the chopper pilot didn’t have a visual on the plane.

RIP.