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| visibility3miles
January 31, 2025, 16:06:00 GMT permalink Post: 11818320 |
Note/apologies to moderators: As a private pilot who doesn’t even fly anymore, I normally wouldn’t contribute to a thread like this, but I live in the great Washington, DC, area, so I know what the weather was like (very clear, visibility 26 miles, low wind, warming up after a very cold cold snap, the ice on the river was breaking up..) I’ve been to Hains point and the park across the river due south of the airport, as well as flying in and out of DCA as a pax, etc., etc.
BTW, the Potomac River is subject to sea tides by the airport, so that can’t help in the recovery, plus it was carrying a lot of melted snow at the time, adding to the cold and volume. It’s been on the news 24/7 around here. Anyway, there are a few stories in the Washington Post that might be of interest, or completely irrelevant: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md...eagan-airport/
Ari Schulman, a reporter in D.C., was driving home to Alexandria along the George Washington Memorial Parkway — which passes
Reagan National Airport
— when he said he witnessed an explosion that he now believes was
the plane and helicopter that collided
Wednesday.
Schulman said he saw sparks spreading along the plane, nose to tail, as the aircraft banked sharply to the right. “I couldn’t make sense of what I saw because it didn’t seem like they were coming directly out of the plane,” Schulman said. “They were underneath its belly and separated a little distance.” Schulman, who said he has reported on plane crashes but never seen one up close, was shaken by the experience. “I pray that there are many survivors,” he said. He shared a detailed description of what he saw on X
Two of Reagan National Airport’s air traffic controllers were doing double duty Wednesday night.
… On Wednesday evening, the position of helicopter controller — a role typically staffed until 9:30 p.m. — had been combined ahead of the crash with that of local controller, according to the report. Doubling up those roles can create challenges for an air traffic controller, especially if the airspace is busy. The roles use different radio frequencies, and airplane pilots and helicopter pilots cannot necessarily hear each other even if they’re both in touch with the tower. Subjects
ATC
DCA
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| Ikijibiki
January 31, 2025, 17:08:00 GMT permalink Post: 11818373 |
Helicopters flying along Potomac frequently pose dangers to passenger jets
From the Washington Post:
On Tuesday night, just 24 hours before a deadly
collision between a military helicopter and a regional jet
at Reagan National Airport, a different passenger jet coming in for a landing at the airport alerted the tower it had to abort. The reason: risk of possible collision with a helicopter.
. . . Frequent military training and other flights around the airport have prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to place an air traffic controller dedicated to helicopters in the National Airport tower to manage the hazards, a person who is familiar with tower operations said. But staffing levels were “not normal” inside the tower at the time of Wednesday night’s accident, and no single controller was assigned to helicopter flights, according to an air traffic safety report described to The Washington Post. When the crash occurred around 8:50 p.m. Wednesday, the job of managing helicopters in the vicinity was being handled by a controller who was also managing other air traffic, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Last edited by Ikijibiki; 31st January 2025 at 17:23 . Subjects
ATC
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| visibility3miles
February 03, 2025, 12:44:00 GMT permalink Post: 11820506 |
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md...ues-point-dei/
Plane extraction from Potomac River set to begin on Monday…
Crews are set to begin lifting a catastrophically damaged American Airlines regional jet from the bottom of the Potomac River in Washington on Monday, five days after the plane and an Army helicopter collided in a fiery crash that left no survivors . What’s left of the plane will be carefully brought to the surface with the help of Navy salvage experts and specialized dive teams who have been rehearsing the effort, according to Col. Francis Pera, the Baltimore district commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is helping oversee the work. The Army Corps said the process could take three days to complete. The aircraft will be hoisted out of the water with a crane and onto a barge, then covered by a large tent, providing “full discretion” for human remains that may still be on board, Pera said.
Work to pull out wreckage of the Black Hawk helicopter would follow, with completion of “large lifts” expected around Feb. 8, according to an estimated timeline. Crews will then work to clear other large crash-related debris elsewhere in the river, with a goal of “demobilizing” the salvage equipment authorities have rushed to the site by Feb. 12, according to the Army Corps.
The FAA also
said Sunday
that a system for sending safety alerts to pilots was operational after an outage that began Saturday evening. The FAA said a backup plan was in place while the alert system, known as NOTAM, was temporarily out. It is investigating the cause of the outage.
Last edited by visibility3miles; 3rd February 2025 at 13:00 . Reason: Adding quote about NOTAM Subjects
Blackhawk (H-60)
DCA
FAA
NTSB
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