[arista]

Originally Posted by Beso

My algorithm says it was a lesbian driver of the helicopter committing suicide.

That is terrible to say.

[Nicky91]

oh my god


someone in the ATC accidentally pressed on the mic, the crew of the Black Hawk didn't hear enough information about where the American Eagle plane was


instead they got a heterodyne, which is a beeping sound, if more communicate at the same time on the same frequency, so the Black Hawk crew i think were trying to ask this, however this didn't get through due to the ATC pressing on the mic at the same time also saying something



this ''heterodyne'' problem has been fatal before, at Tenerife, with the collision between a Pan Am and a KLM plane

[Maru]

Army Blackhawk pilot in DC crash failed to heed flight instructor’s command 15 seconds before deadly collision: report
https://nypost.com/2025/04/27/us-new...lision-report/

The Army Blackhawk pilot involved in the Washington, DC, plane crash failed to heed her flight instructor’s warning just 15 seconds before the deadly crash that killed 67 people, according to a new report.

Moments before the deadly Jan. 29 crash near Reagan International Airport, Capt. Rebecca Lobach missed an order from co-pilot Andrew Eaves, who was overseeing her training mission, to change course and avoid the descending American Airlines jet, the New York Times reported.

Along with the error, officials found that the pilots “stepped on” some of the air traffic controller’s instructions, meaning they accidentally cut him off when pressing the button to talk over the radio and likely missed important information.

Officials found that Capt. Rebecca Lobach failed to heed her instructor’s orders to change course just seconds before the collision.

A key moment occurred around 8:46 p.m., when Eaves requested and received approval for the helicopter’s pilots to use their own visuals instead of air-traffic control to avoid other air traffic. The move is common practice to speed things up, but of course comes with the risk of more human error.

During that moment, investigators believe Eaves and Lobach failed to hear that the American Airlines plane was “circling” because one of them was pressing the microphone key to speak to air traffic control when the word came through.

Just 20 seconds before the crash occurred, the air-traffic controller asked the helicopter if it spotted American Airlines Flt. 5342, which was coming up on Runway 33 where the chopper was approaching.

“PAT two-five, do you have the CRJ in sight?” he asked, using the abbreviation for the model of Flt. 5342’s aircraft.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves and Lobach had pressed on their microphones when getting orders from air traffic control, cutting off the message and missing key information. via REUTERS

That was the last communication between the plane and the air-traffic controller.

Technology on the Black Hawk that would have allowed air traffic control to better track the helicopter was also found to be turned off that day, common protocol if the training mission had been for real.

But it was a practice mission involving an annual flying assessment for Robach, who was training as if top congressional officials needed to be flown from a Capitol under siege.

Salvage teams search the Potomac River for the plane and the bodies of its passengers. Getty Images

Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, the Army’s director of aviation, said it was clear that multiple factors contributed to the deadly crash.

“I think what we’ll find in the end is there were multiple things that, had any one of them changed, it could have well changed the outcome of that evening,” he said.

Aviation experts have long bemoaned the practice of allowing pilots to navigate on their own, as human error can often lead to tragedy, especially in the exceedingly busy conditions around Reagan airport.

Air traffic control sent a message seconds before the crash asking if the helicopter had visuals on the approaching jet. REUTERS

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has since openly criticized the long-standing practice and vowed to get rid of it as he likened it to “threading a needle.”

There was also an apparent discrepancy between two of the three Army pilots aboard the doomed chopper about what altitude they were flying at, according to investigators — and they were well above the 200-foot limit for that location.

At one point before the collision, the helicopter’s pilot announced that they were at 300 feet, but the instructor pilot was also heard saying the helicopter was at 400 feet, according to recordings.

At the time of the fiery crash, the Black Hawk was flying at 278 feet, National Transportation Safety Board head Jennifer Homedy said, adding, “That doesn’t mean that’s what the Black Hawk crew was seeing on the barometric altimeters in the cockpit.”

The Black Hawk collided with Flt. 5342, which was en route to Reagan National Airport from Wichita, Kan., just at 8:47:59 p.m., officials said.

[Cherie]

Outrageously dangerous on a training flight...