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I am setting aside the DEI crap for now. It is a cancer and your points about New Zealand and LAFD are spot on. However...
No one can convince me that there is any good reason for this training to be happening in an area where there is commercial air traffic within 100 - 200 feet vertical separation. This is INSANE.
Just listen to some of the causals being bandied about:
Pressure setting mistake 29.79" should have been 29.97" - oops
BH altimeter calibration not done prior to flight - oops
NVG being worn / not worn - oops
So while we try and make sense out of DC / FAA / military stupidity, there are probably still dead figure skaters strapped to their seats at the bottom of the icy Potomac waiting to be recovered.
Of course I want the root cause to see the light of day. But please stop this madness of +/- 100 feet tolerance with peoples lives.
Beam me up Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here.
I remember Trump’s original response to this event. If he said it once he said it 5 times.
‘The airplane was following all protocols and doing everything correctly...the helicopter was too high, (or too low)... NOT where it should have been. It was in the wrong place.
HE KNEW right away. THe people who want to challenge that can kiss off
I have friends who have lived in the immediate area. Training choppers flying have happened there for past 30+ years