Midair Collision DCA

That's yalls dumbass facility's problem. Don't put your incompetence at washing people out on national.
We as a facility did everything we could to clear out multiple trainees, but the region said no, and keep training. Believe me, none of us wanted it. We were told you WILL train them. The ATM was even blocked from removing them and going against the TRB via a letter from the region.. That’s failure goes way above us. I’m sorry, four TRBs in, you should be done. Box 1 runway incursions, no lack of positive control, errors every session. All documented. 200 hours target number, and you drag it to 1000 and they still fail. That is the rot in the system.

Here is a prior Controller giving an interview. Not sure who he is but sounds like he is out of Chicago somewhere.

This man is a gentleman and a class act. Boy we could use him. He should be hired immediately as PR for NATCA…
 
We need to be hammering the stress angle in the public square. If 2% of the 50,000 applicants make it then pile on the stress of the job, the increase in suicides, the increase is resignation attritions, the attacks on our pay and benefits by the republicans, the gross under funding for decades, the degradation of compensation in the wake of the Covid recovery inflation, the lower level guys and trainees working side jobs and all the staffing related talking points and get the public to see how the controllers have been backpacking the NAS for decades and patching it together with duct tape. You can point to the FCT disaster to fend off the inevitable privitization rebuttals that will make the rounds on Fox News. Managements answer will to plug everyone in all the time because the narrative after this is 2 guys working 4 seats. The TOP hammer down we’re gonna see is just gonna gas everyone more. They’ll make it worse so they can CYA on the news
 

Who the fuck if this yoohoo spewing nonsense, it sounds like he has no clue what he's talking about.
 

Very similar situation just 24 hours before the collision. TCAS RA to avoid the helicopter, shows just how normal those helicopters are flying through the arrivals.
Also shows the difference between getting the alert above 1000ft vs Not even getting a aural warning below 500
 
Also shows the difference between getting the alert above 1000ft vs Not even getting a aural warning below 500
There are 1000's of these innocuous RA's a day. This is just part of the mob digging. They will certainly turn up plenty of helicopter related issues at DCA. I've watched a legit one from maybe 2 years ago that was mostly the controllers fault. Let's hope they lose interest sooner then later and let the NTSB do what they need to do.
 
NY Times just put up a small report headlined "285 of 313 air traffic control facilities in the U.S. are understaffed". They got the data from the union apparently. At the very least, stuff is getting out there finally but it needs to just keep going.
 
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.
We have no choice but to get our TOP up. If it hits the news that we only work maybe 40% of our workday on position, the media and tax payers will rip us to pieces!
 
We have no choice but to get our TOP up. If it hits the news that we only work maybe 40% of our workday on position, the media and tax payers will rip us to pieces!
Yah cus we don’t control the narrative. The public thinks what we do is crazy and they want us rested and alert. NATCA should negotiate a recuperation code in art to count as TOP
 
NY Times just put up a small report headlined "285 of 313 air traffic control facilities in the U.S. are understaffed". They got the data from the union apparently. At the very least, stuff is getting out there finally but it needs to just keep going.
The window is closing. We already missed our chance to control our narrative and drive the points home. The news cycle will move into the next big topic by tomorrow or the next day and interviews with NATCA won’t be wanted.

With that portion aside. Can someone for god sakes please confirm Nick is at least in DC now and has visited and providing support to DCA? He should have been on a flight late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. The interview this morning showing his location as Chicago, IL was absolutely embarrassing for us.
 
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We have the breaks we do because of the demanding job dumdum
Right, 3 of 6 positions open and 7+ on break. Explain that to the media and those families, smh.

Breaks are awesome and well deserved. Just open more positions, instead of staffing the break room,

“dumb-dumb”

Let’s hope there was only 1 on break at DCA!
 
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