Posts by user "A0283" [Posts: 5 Total up-votes: 3 Page: 1 of 1]¶

Helicopter single box combing CVR+DFDR has been recovered and looked good. No exterior damage.

Aircraft CVR had already been recovered, showed water ingress, was soaked in ionised water, then into oven for getting water out, still checking connectors \x85 but high confidence to get audio out.

Aircraft FDR already recovered, no water ingress, soaked in alcohol, looked good, ref 2,000 datapoints, high confidence to get data out.

NTSB investigation runs parallel to DoD investigation (I assume that will be the usual double), but independent, so NTSB got its own heli on-type licensed pilot in the team.

Investigation has a closely matching config CRJ available to match recovery of items and seating and cockpit config with items being recovered (which are refd on grid coordinates).

Main lift starts tomorrow and may take days. Prio 1 is still recovering all the victims. After that heavy lift of the big chunks starts on Sunday. This will take days.

ATCO interview(s) has already started. The history of the wider ATC team of controllers will look back for 24-72 hrs probably. But also at level of hiring and training.

PoB manifest are, by law, never published by NTSB and are excluded from FOIA.

Yesterday Bill Inman was the \x93Board member on site. \x93 He gave the conference. Mrs Homendy was working behind the scenes. Mr Inman was joined by a few NTSB persons but these were not introduced by name. No IIC name was forwarded. Suppose that becomes clear in the next few days.

The location of the crash gives the much discussed \x93midair accidents waiting to happen\x94 immediate exposure to Congress. It was reported that Congress had already started its own investigation.

So next to one NTSB, two military and one Congressional investigation we appear to have already four investigations running in parallel. Plus whitehouse statements on events and investigation.

Hope Pprune moderators can keep us informed about what is within scope of our exchanges here.
Just thinking \x85 Maybe an idea to focus on factual, not using words like blame etc, so in line with Annex 13.
For me information from a congressional hearing will be part factual and part political.

Having quite a few questions:

At what distance and light conditions should any average (heli) pilot be able to identify specifically a \x93CRJ\x94 ?

That stand alone, or after having been told what other traffic was in range and view. For example another being a biz jet or A320.

And this question for both daytime and at night.

Would that performance improve when ATC would supply them with say \x93at your 11 o\x92clock and 1,500 ft and 150 kt and intent (visual to rwy33)?

And would that performance improve at say 3 o\x92clock?

Amazed that visual separation responsibility ended up in the lap of the \x91least able\x92 party involved that some here describe as being \x91clinically\x92 blind !

On the NTSB - as far as I have understood it, they can study and recommend on anything. They could for example start an SS parallel to this investigation addressing this wider issue.

NTSB chair pointing out the horizontal position of the helicopter during last weeks testimony.
The altitude is still uncertain because of difference between jet and heli values and destruction of the heli altimeter. So work on that is continuing with a focus on other sources.
But note the 75 ft separation is a maximum. So if the heli was at 200ft then it was on the glide slope.




Another interesting point is that mixed heli and fixed wing is forbidden in the yellow zone (permanently), and ADSB mandatory in the red zone. With routes 4 and 6 cut.

See post below

Another interesting point is that mixed heli and fixed wing is forbidden in the yellow zone (permanently), and ADSB mandatory in the red zone. With routes 4 and 6 cut.



another item in the testimony was that generally 100% army helicopters flew there with ADSB set to OFF.

and that the accident heli might have put their ADSB to ON, but that the FAA had not received ADSB data from this heli in 730 days.

on ADSB there also was a difference between the Mike and Lima models,

NTSB chair indicated there was a lot more factual information. I wonder if the pull from Congress will lead to a change in the normal process, and release more factual information (with an appropriate disclaimer).