A plane lands at upwards of 165mph, that’s about 250ft/scd. That’s not a lot of reaction time if the air traffic controller hasn’t done due diligence and gives clear instructions.
Let’s hope no one got misgendered during the conversation. That’s the important part.
Looks like a near-perfect closing solution to me.
That is not how I would describe the helicopter's path. And Standard ceiling of helicopters in that air space was top at 200 feet. The collision was said to have been at 400 feet. (assuming that the altimeter on the helicopter was correct, it should never have happened. Terrain in the Potomac river area would affect the reading in one instance, but the chopper was always over the water and it was at the collision.)
Whole string of very costly errors.
I want the NAMES and PICTURES of the ATC people AND the Helicopter crew!!
So it was ATC’s fault?
ATC requests HH heading and altitude.
HH reports heading and altitude.
ATC to HH: Do you see airliner at your 10 o’clock and . . . ?
ATC to HH: Hover and hold your present position.
My past included Air Traffic Control for the USMC. It caught my eye the controllers have been sending out a number of - we were understaffed, we were short handed, the controller was doing the job of 2 controllers, type stories for the press.
Air traffic control will take a good bit of the hit on this one. I wonder if the helicopter pilot was told simply to just stop/hover in place.
This is even worse than we thought. A 2 min video on DEI in the FAA...
https://x.com/JohnStrandUSA/status/1885173868916052041