Posted on 02/19/2025 6:07:10 AM PST by Red Badger
 BREAKING: The NTSB just dropped the Blackhawk helicopter’s black box recordings from the deadly Washington, DC crash with a commercial jet—and it’s a jaw-dropper. Here’s what it tells us:
 Altitude Chaos: The chopper’s altimeter was off—way off. Pilot read 300 feet, instructor saw 400, but the real number? 278 feet—well above the 200-foot ceiling. They were flying blind on bad data.
 Missed Calls: Air traffic control screamed “pass behind the jet”—but the pilots didn’t hear it. The mic was keyed at the worst moment, drowning out the warning. Seconds later? Boom.  Last-Second Panic: The jet’s pilots tried to pull up—nose pitched up just before impact. Too late. The Blackhawk crew? No clue what hit them ‘til it did.
 Night Vision Goggles: They were wearing them, but did they obscure the jet’s lights? Experts say it’s possible they locked onto the wrong target in DC’s crowded skies.
This wasn’t just one mistake—it was a cascade of failures. 67 lives gone. NTSB says a prelim report’s coming soon, but this black box is already screaming: something was seriously broken that night. Share this—people need to know.
Common sense from a government agency?
With all the description of altimeter error/discrepancies/capabilities why fly at all in an area with a limit of only 200ft?
There is not enough margin for error with a 200ft ceiling in an urban environment through a flight path of commercial airplanes passing through that altitude.
Its “on its face” RIDICULOUS! And now we know, DEADLY!
The phrase "possible contributing factor" is understated, but you're on the right track.
The fact that Route 4 went anywhere near the normal glide path for runway 33 is the entire root of the problem. And it appears, since there were two other incidents in the previous week with helicopters, that everyone locally familiar should have known what an enormous, unacceptable safety issue the basic construction of the airspace presented.
All the finger-pointing at dead people is useful on one level, but the basic premise for the entire episode that led to 67 deaths was 100 percent avoidable with sensible airspace structure that didn't deliberately allow the possibility of VFR route traffic in the normal approach path of ANY runway in busy airspace. It's just common sense to see the glaringly obvious hazard - that safety depended more on the "big sky" theory of probabilities than actual preventative measures.
yeah, it’s so bizarre that it seems like we don’t yet have the entire picture
“Whoever thought a military training mission in a crowded airspace at night with night vision goggles on was a good idea????........”
It was a STUPID idea. Like taking a HumVee out at night using NVGs, black out drive and going offbase on public roads with broken turn signals and no GPS for a ‘check out drive’. Total Yahoo. Or, lemme guess a ‘Politics-First’ environment.
Stay on the base. Stay in your assigned Training Area. Properly PMCS your vehicle that YOU are responsible for. Don’t pencil whip deficiencies. Don’t game your equipment to compensate for inop features. And Don’t BS the PMCS checks!
There’s a PMCS check list at their base for that flight which better show the jacked up altimeters. Imo probably not cuz that should be a huge X/NoGo for aircraft.
That woman used her Gender-DEI-Political-Privilege to the max and got herself and a lot of other ppl kilt.
I would imagine that it is hard to stay current with your pilot skills when you are working in the White House.
I would also think that the place to refresh your flying skills would not be at Washington, D.C. but perhaps a quieter military post.
It is extremely important for pilots to periodically check ane reset their altimeter if needed.
Altimeter Errors
Manufacturing and installation specifications, along with 14 CFR Part 43, Appendix E requirement for periodic tests and inspections, helps reduce mechanical, elastic, temperature, and installation errors. (See Instrument Flying Handbook.) Scale error may be observed while performing a ground altimeter check using the following procedure:
Set the current reported airfield altimeter setting on the altimeter setting scale.
Read the altitude on the altimeter. The altitude should read the known field elevation if you are located on the same reference level used to establish the altimeter setting.
If the difference from the known field elevation and the altitude read from the altimeter is plus or minus 75 feet or greater, the accuracy of the altimeter is questionable and the problem should be referred to an appropriately rated repair station for evaluation and possible correction.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim_html/chap7_section_2.html
This is semi-useless unless you know whether or not the altimeters had the correct altimeter settings dialed in. When I worked aircraft instrumentation, I could adjust an altimeter to within 5-10 feet of perfect. And on our test equipment we could set the altitude to within 1 foot!
Another way for altimeters to be off by a lot is water in the static lines that feed the altimeter systems.
WE ALL DO.
They were zig zagging and on the wrong side of the river. Sounds more like they were acting stupid. They flew directly into the plane and didn’t appear to try avoiding it.
Lots of variables in that assumption.
Did both pilots input baro reading into their altimeters incorrectly? or at all? Sloppy ATIS monitoring just looking for the code at the end of the transmission?
If both did manually set or cross-check pressure and altitude prior to takeoff, then they disagreed later, something was broken both in hardware and in training.
IMO both pilots were using a visual horizon for reference, not instruments.,."That looks about right..." seat of the pants flying.
One thing being ignored by many is just plain bad luck. If the commuter hadn't changed runways then their timing on the original approach would have them ahead of the helicopter by many seconds maybe minutes. That doesn't change the outcome but does introduce another "X" factor into the cascade equation.
Seems like they were allowing this for a while?
If they needed the practice on evacuating VIPs from the Nation's Capital, they should do it in the middle of night.
Even though it's noisy. At least the airport won't be congested at that time.
🔝🔝🔝
It is not useless when your ceiling is 200 feet in high traffic density.
No matter what the right number was they were WAYYY to high and they knew it.
Even given instrument error for the most forgiving altitude of 278 they were egregiously above the ceiling limit.
They're not accidents. An accident is getting hit in the head by an asteroid. It's neglect, inattention, inexperience etc, etc. There are real reasons why this collision occurred. A whoopsie accident is not one of them.
The simple solution to this would have been to schedule the night training opps later in the evening when commercial traffic had thinned out and ATC controller work load had become much reduced to reduce the chance of mid air.
This!
“It was DEI. Very sad.”
I didn’t see that mentioned, or even alluded to. Is there text other than the X post at the link?
I’m not saying it wasn’t DEI, because it probably was, but I didn’t see that.
The upside-down crash in Canada could be, though. I read that the company running that airline is a female-only company.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.