Midair Collision DCA

It's ok, Trump blamed the pilot too.

"You had a pilot problem, from the standpoint of the helicopter. I mean, because it was visual, it was very clear night. It was cold, but clear and clear as you could be," Trump said. The president went on to say the helicopter "had the ability to go up or down, had the ability to turn." "You could have gone up, you could have gone down. You could have gone straight up, straight down. You could have turned, you could have done a million different maneuvers," Trump said.


Also FAA stated DCA staffing wasn't normal and had the LC and Helo position combined. Expect higher time on position.
 
James said:
End of Story. The controllers should have never been put in this situation. The pilots should have never been put in this situation. And it's definitely not the only airport with situations that should not be happening.
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They put traffic over the river both north and south, for the noise footprint. But why is there a helicopter coming south, right over the river, directly towards landing traffic? It’s one thing for a pilot to not always see traffic, but this just has to be bad procedure
 
Motodog said:
They put traffic over the river both north and south, for the noise footprint. But why is there a helicopter coming south, right over the river, directly towards landing traffic? It’s one thing for a pilot to not always see traffic, but this just has to be bad procedure
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"It's worked a thousand times, it's fine!"
 

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Motodog said:
They put traffic over the river both north and south, for the noise footprint. But why is there a helicopter coming south, right over the river, directly towards landing traffic? It’s one thing for a pilot to not always see traffic, but this just has to be bad procedure
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I’m sure they’ve complained about this internally and maybe filed ATSAPs about it. Every facility has a procedure that are basically ticking time bombs waiting.. hopefully when NATCA makes their TV statement it’ll be in support of us and bring up the stress of the workloads, staffing, etc. bring light to everything so we can fix things and show why we need to beef up staffing, review procedures like this controllers have atsap-d before,do more to mitigate OT/combining positions, increase pay, more.
 
ATCDave said:
Is it true that Blue Streak was never issued the helo traffic?
Also PAT wasn't advised that his traffic was turning left onto the final and descending.
Add an extremely challenging visual environment for the pilots with a lot of lights and clutter.
No traffic or safety alert given...
Wow, this doesn't look good.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884827088437264387
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Nothing from that looks abnormal.
 
CoffeeIV said:
It's ok, Trump blamed the pilot too.

"You had a pilot problem, from the standpoint of the helicopter. I mean, because it was visual, it was very clear night. It was cold, but clear and clear as you could be," Trump said. The president went on to say the helicopter "had the ability to go up or down, had the ability to turn." "You could have gone up, you could have gone down. You could have gone straight up, straight down. You could have turned, you could have done a million different maneuvers," Trump said.


Also FAA stated DCA staffing wasn't normal and had the LC and Helo position combined. Expect higher time on position.
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Prepare to be decombined until the mids get there.
 
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) joins all Americans in grieving for those who lost their lives in last night’s tragedy at Washington National Airport (DCA), and in praying for the families of those who were lost. NATCA continues to work with all federal agencies regarding last night’s accident. As we await more information from the ongoing investigations, our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, and military members and their families, as well as the first responders who were on scene.



NATCA stands with the highly trained, highly skilled air traffic controller workforce and those who perform safety-critical work 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, 365 days-a-year and keeps the United States as the gold standard for aviation safety.



NATCA has been and remains supportive of taking all possible steps to ensure America has the best and safest air traffic control system in the world. We will be a ready partner with the administration and Congress in any effort to further modernize the ATC system to maximize safety and protect lives.
 
Move78 said:
The only thing he did wrong was not give the CRJ a traffic advisory. So yes there’s a mistake by atc. But there’s nothing else shitty about it. Visual is on the pilot we don’t fly the planes.
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or the required Safety/Traffic alert, which are requirements if you have ever been to court over these things (i have) the controller will be at least a contributing factor,
Stop the, This is what I would have done or what he did or didn't do and support your profession. The world is watching you, even here now.

Bolo said:
I’m sure they’ve complained about this internally and maybe filed ATSAPs about it. Every facility has a procedure that are basically ticking time bombs waiting.. hopefully when NATCA makes their TV statement it’ll be in support of us and bring up the stress of the workloads, staffing, etc. bring light to everything so we can fix things and show why we need to beef up staffing, review procedures like this controllers have atsap-d before,do more to mitigate OT/combining positions, increase pay, more.
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sure now is the time to ask for a pay raise, Got It. If only I was making more money I would pay attention.
 
atcrick said:
sure now is the time to ask for a pay raise, Got It. If only I was making more money I would pay attention.
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That's not the point at all. We should have a higher standard, we should train to a higher standard... with that we should be compensated well. The whole "anyone can do this job" is a terrible idea. The multiple TRBs over and over and countless sim training just so someone who shouldn't do this job can be walked into a certification... all so the rest of us get to spend extra brain power watching over and working around people who should not be there.

We need to stop promoting people who are terrible at their jobs, a small amount of OSs are good leaders. They are there to run the rotation and take calls and they often do poorly at that, They copy and paste yearly performance reviews, they worry more about things that make them look good to their bosses TOP, wx briefs, currency than actually helping to keep the skies safe, many act like they were the best controllers before they went OS... we remember working next to you and how terrible you were.

Hate or like Trump, he's wrong about some of this... but there's also some of it he's right about. Both can be true.
 
atcrick said:
or the required Safety/Traffic alert, which are requirements if you have ever been to court over these things (i have) the controller will be at least a contributing factor,
Stop the, This is what I would have done or what he did or didn't do and support your profession. The world is watching you, even here now.
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The helicopter TWICE reported the aircraft in sight and themselves asked to provide visual sep. There is no required Safety alert at that point as a pilot is telling you he is keeping separation from the other. Yes the CRJ should have had traffic called but let's be honest here, that would have changed absolutely nothing. Once that RJ pilot is told that traffic has them in sight and is maintaining visual, it's essentially in one ear and out the other at that point for that pilot. 99.9% of all of us would have done the exact same thing this guy did working these aircraft if we were the one working DCA local at that point. Anyone that says differently, I'm assuming, are the same type people that say they have never once in their entire life exceeded a posted speed limit while driving (i.e. they are full of crap).

I feel for this guy and for the others up in that tower last night. They are going through the nightmare that none of us ever hope to go through. Meanwhile the entire world proceeds to judge and armchair QB the job they did and the job we do every single day as our "President" calls us incompetent (at least if you've ever made planes circle before).
 
BDUB said:
NATCA should be on the news explaining how the controller has XXX amount of overtime this year and is clearly fatigued because of our staffing crisis we’ve been in for 10+ years. Instead our union does nothing for the situation and sits on their hands while the controller will get chastised about what he “should” have done.
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Admitting the controller was fatigued and still accepted the assignment doesn’t look good for him and the union. This opens up a lane for lawyers to attack…
 
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