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.
I believe they were way above the altitude limit based on radar data, but we don't know what the altimeters would be reading unless we know what altimeter settings they had dialed in.
An earlier story indicated that they were training for an emergency evacuation of the President away from the White House. That would very likely be happening in very busy flight traffic conditions.
Or other members of our royal society like senators and congressmen, they termed it something like COG, continuance of government training.
So the pilot and instructor both knew they were too high, and actually thought they were even more wrong than they actually were?
This is all on the Army. No way to spin that.
The post states the black box data revealed pilots thought the altimeter readings were 300, 400 and 278.
Not radar, that was enough they should have dropped low immediately.
I'm willing to take that statement at face value, and conclude there isn't an Army pilot in the region that shouldn't be grounded and sent back to basic flight training. Including the brass.
Well, I don't think the black box can determine what the pilots thought :). Do you mean the two pressure altimeters and the radar altimeter?
The planes I worked on didn't have black boxes to record data so I don't know how the altimeter settings play into what is recorded, but I do know that the altimeter setting can change what is displayed by hundreds of feet.
It was the blind leading the blind and it cost many citizens their lives...
I am only going on what is in the post. It does not say radar, it says altimeter and lists those values. As far as me personalizing the scenario that’s just a way of communicating.
Quoted 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.
Agreed. That’s why it is in quotes.
Update. Two videos from YouTubers Taking Off and Jeff Ostroff on the NTSB preliminary report. About 20 minutes each. Informative and infuriating. This near miss crap has been going on at Reagan for years.
https://youtu.be/8vrW8nScxoU?feature=shared
https://youtu.be/tF85Ph6nDMg?feature=shared
More here...
Has links to both the interim report and the urgent safety recommendation. The latter is in .pdf format so I don’t have a hyperlink.
Who uses most of the helos going in and out of DCA...?
Inquiring minds want to know.
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