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Apols for the crude graphic. But this shows the relative location of Route 5 (along I-395), the Pentagon, the DCA tower, and the Pentagon city cluster of high-rises including the new Amazon HQ2. At the altitude the helo was flying, it would be largely masked from the tower. explaining why they "didn't have a good fix".

It would also be good to know who was on board that helicopter and why it was Pete Hairgelseth.

What do you mean by " they were not aware of the traffic coming into 33 "? They were specifically informed about the incoming traffic circling into 33.
And they acknowledged it, although in a very short reply (understandable to keep R/T's as short as possible).

But replying with " traffic circling 33 in sight " just might have improved their own SA, helping to build the mental picture that mentioned traffic was going to move slightly to their left and was at some point going to cross their route from left to right. And if they didn't have that mental picture of what "circling 33" meant for their routing, then a lot was wrong long before the impact. Edit: UH60 CVR transcript of the same (notice the difference in transcript 'circling' <-> 'for') and yes of course, we all know, beaten to death, etc. that they 'locked' onto the wrong traffic for their visual separation in this very challenging and complex visual situation (not to mention at night with NVG's !!!).


And what strikes me over and over again, is this mutual 'pavlovian' "request visual separation"-"approved" thing, as if proclaiming these words, absolves all involved from any rules/restriction that might hinder the smooth flow of things (which it does - kind of).
Even at the last chance of averting disaster by the controller (by clearly indicating the target), the pavlovian reaction was there again (totally meaningless as it was already requested and approved 96 second earlier)... ... even while not catching the drift of the controller's last R/T (but hey, we said the magic words, so lets keep on moving)

From 10-AIR-A FLIGHT DATA RECORDER - AIRPLANE - GROUP CHAIRMAN'S FACTUAL REPORT :

You can see that the pitch-up reduced the airspeed, and the vertical speed was mostly unaffected. This would have had a net effect of making the descent steeper (as the Radio Alt suggests).

If the CRJ crew had remained unaware, we would've learned how the downwash of a helicopter affects the wings of a jet.

The ultimate point is that a situation where a helicopter scrapes by the underside of a jet is not supposed to occur. At this point, all bets are off anyway, and rather than pondering what to do in such a situation, the focus should be on how to prevent it in the first place.

No, they're exactly the same. If you say "traffic in sight" then the controller will immediately say "Maintain visual separation."

"Request visual separation" is non-standard.


https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publ...section_2.html

not intending to be cynical, but it makes the helos blend in nicely with the background, sort of out of the way for rwy 01/19 traffic (=95% of total)
I wonder how many pilots on rwy 01/19 really perceived this section of the routing as unsafe (when flown correctly = hugging the shoreline at max 200ft).
A nuisance, undoubtedly. And the whole helicopter traffic surrounding DCA, pretty unsafe, I can understand.
And then we have nighttime...



taking the nearby airport out of the equation, I wonder if any of the professional operators on this route 4 section, ever felt that this low-level flying was (unnecessarily) unsafe

Absolutely, it was a non-standard discourse. But however you look at what was said, PAT 25 requested the change to visual separation. Meaning PAT25 correctly believed he was under standard 1.5nm/500ft separation at the time and that he needed LC approval for Visual separation to be applied. The change in the separation standard being applied did not happen until the LC accepted PAT 25\x92s traffic visual report and authorised the change. It\x92s not an automatic change made just on the pilot\x92s say so, ie by reporting visual, which I think is what you may be implying (happy if you correct me). Both pilot and LC are necessary (and both made errors here).

The overall issue is that NONE of those systems or combinations thereof were ever designed for close quarters airshow-like margins of separation, they'll keep you a mile or two apart, not 200 feet apart. While I think they might maybe have saved the day, relying on that in the middle of the Class B on freaking final is NOT what anyone would ever expect.
(the same thing happens with boat transponders, once you get close enough to throw a beer at the other boat they can be on the opposite side of you as the traffic display shows)

For myself, I get to look at the pretty colors. If I was the AA plane the helo would have been red, but it was close enough to be red even if it was going behind me.