I have read the helicopter was supposed to be flying at 200 feet, but the crash occurred at around 375 feet. Is 175 feet of separation really acceptable for an approach?
” Is 175 feet of separation really acceptable for an approach?”
No, it’s part of some idiocracy.
That is just past the 50 yard line on a football field. Scary close.
I don’t care to hear excuses about night vision goggles or the helicopter mistook a plane behind them. They were zig zagging back and forth just before and they were supposed to be on the far side of the river. No way they didn’t see the plane and never bothered to correct. If it had been hacked, they should/would have radioed it in. Nothing makes sense but intentional.
“...I have read the helicopter was supposed to be flying at 200 feet...”
It’s my understanding that that air space requires the choppers to stay around 100 feet as it is in the glide path of incoming traffic. So, yes they were too high.
“Is 175 feet of separation really acceptable for an approach?”
It is relatively too close for my taste as the clear air turb coming off the wing vortex would have an effect on the chopper in most cases. The chopper crew never saw the jet. I think the traffic they identified to the tower was not the one they collided with but the one that had just taken off. People think there is a lot of space up there but with speed, night, and a congested area, it can happen at lightening speed.
The Reagon main runway sees over 800 landings and takeoffs a day now. So on the average, there are over 30 aircraft in the immediate area scopes not counting the military at any given time and those enroute prior to entering the pattern. Mistakes are going to happen.
wy69
“Is 175 feet of separation really acceptable”
It can’t be. For a large aircraft going hundreds of miles per hour meeting a much smaller helicopter going half that speed, head on, that is a huge problem.
Were the altimeters of both aircraft accurate and did that altitude information get correctly sent to the black boxes in real time?
The real issue is the visual flying aspect, at least one of the pilots of both aircraft should have had their eyes forward on the flight path. One of the aircraft should have made some effort to veer off to avoid the crash.
Both aircraft were well lit. Being well lit against the contrast of a dark evening would make both aircraft much more visible, including visible from a great distance.
The video made it appear the helicopter gained altitude at the last minute to purposely hit the airplane.
200 ft msl was required in the air corridor she was assigned, but not only did she ascend and accelerate speed, she was half a mile out of her assigned corridor…aimed right as well as any kamikaze might be, at that landing airliner, toward the heavily trafficked Virginia side of the Potomac
With no attempt to swerve drop climb or any reaction st the last seconds when any logic says she saw the airliner
and if sources released are reliable, her alt speed and course changes occurred after she was ordered to RTB and then to land immediately
I wanted to think it was an accident