[T.B. Yoits]

From the article: Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course.

That's not a "misstep", that's criminal negligence.

The self-direction she failed at, months to years before that flight, was to direct herself to say "no" to those who steered her toward aviation.

Failing that, her next self-direction she missed was directing herself to turn in her wings.

[Who is John Galt?]

"...The helicopter crew appeared to have made more than one mistake. Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course.

"Radio communications, the tried-and-true means of interaction between controllers and pilots, also broke down. Some of the controller’s instructions were 'stepped on' — meaning that they cut out when the helicopter crew pressed a microphone to speak — and important information likely went unheard.

"Technology on the Black Hawk that would have allowed controllers to better track the helicopter was turned off. Doing so was Army protocol, meant to allow the pilots to practice secretly whisking away a senior government official in an emergency. But at least some experts believe that turning off the system deprived everyone involved of another safeguard..."

[Valpal1]

.edia is working really hard to bury the stark truth.

“Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course.”

I read elsewhere that it wasn’t final seconds but the last 2.5 minutes the female pilot ignored multiple istructio s to lower her altitude.

But they are working mighty hard to spread the blame as many places as possible.

[falcon99]

Who is dbtyz and where did they get this information? From a preliminary accident investigation or are they just saying what they think happen from the number of unofficial reports out there. One part of what they are saying doesn’t really sound right, hough it could be and that is that the instructor told the female pilot a number of times to correct her altitude and she didn’t. In any flight environment, but especially in the one they were in, it the pilot doesn’t follow the instructors commands, the instructor takes the airplane away and corrects the flight condition. So, it makes me wonder why that didn’t happen.

[pfflier]

This is a good analysis of the classic cascade of seemingly minor things that add up to a disaster. It also lacks the emotional hysteria that initially followed the accident.

One thing still missing in this analysis IMO, is the timing change caused when the American flight changed runways. The modification of their approach to the other runway coincidentally cause them to be in the wrong place at the wrong time by extending their time in the air. Original runway heading, no conflict. Earlier decision to change runways, no conflict.

[dragnet2]

Was this the chopper that had the former beauty queen as the pilot? Or did they ever reveal who was the actual pilot was?

[dragnet2]

The pilots either did not detect the specific passenger jet

So there were two pilots physically flying the chopper? Right!

[dragnet2]

The pilots either did not detect the specific passenger jet the controller had flagged, or could not pivot to a safer position

Maybe the "Pilots" were fighting over who was actually flying the chopper?

[CodeToad]

Trying to deflect from DEI by blaming “practices”.

[Red Badger]

AVIATION PING!.....................

[minnesota_bound]

Here’s a good flight plan. Let’s fly in front of airplane traffic taking off and landing at an airport with a margin of about 300ft clearance... and at night too.
Oh and assign a low experience pilot.

Who created that flight plan?

[b4me]

just my opinion, but in watching video and recreations of flight paths, it seemed to me, the helicopter pilot was trying to get in the way of plane, since I don’t see how anyone could make so many “mistakes” in such a short time as happened, to bring the helicopter not only up but also drift more and more into the path of oncoming plane. the H pilot was almost constantly off their flight path for many minutes before the accident.

I also blame control tower for not clearly telling the helicopter to stop and hover, instead of just asking questions about altitude etc and letting them proceed when controller could see for many minutes it would be close before it even looked like a hit. Controller had ability they did not choose to use.