Without conspiracy theory crap ---
From what I have read, this kind of flying done domestically is usually a training flight, although from what I can tell, the pilot himself was experienced. Actual Blackhawk pilots have on X mentioned, they have found themselves in similar situations, because of the limitations of both kinds of craft - one mentioned a near head on collision miss that they avoided by mere seconds - that he was on.
What I DON'T get is - I've seen the flight paths of both aircraft - and the chopper was flying more or less down the Potomac, mostly following its path. ANYONE who's ever flown into Reagan knows, that whole area is full of planes arriving and taking off. I can't imagine in a million years, wanting to fly a chopper - at night - in that area around Washington.
It just seems crazy. I don't imagine that once they were on a collision path there was much chance to avoid it. It's not like playing chicken on the roadway. And I don't fly - I just trust the testimony of other pilots who have discussed the limitations of the aircraft =
Lifted from a Twitter post --
I spent some time as a Blackhawk crew chief here in the Wisconsin Guard and I was on a flight once with 5 crew on board and no one saw a GA aircraft headed right for us until probably 5 seconds before impact. The pilot noticed just in time to bank hard left and avoid the aircraft. One pilot was reviewing an emergency checklist for a simulated mechanical failure, while the the other was checking our destination on the GPS. All three crew members in the back had no line of sight directly in front of the aircraft. The GA aircraft had no transponder on, so the pilots did not see him on the map. And this was at probably 1000 ft altitude in the Wisconsin countryside. We were the only two aircraft in a 10 mile radius and almost hit eachother head on. Conclusion: most blackhawk flights stateside are training missions, and the crew can very easily become task saturated. Combine this with the SIGNIFICANTLY reduced field of view under night vision goggles, which the crew would have had to be using per SOP for night flights. For the landing passenger aircraft, they have basically 0 view beneath them. They would be relying almost 100% on ATC and their instruments. Although rare, this terrible coincidence is very possible. The potential savior here would have been ATC recognizing that not everyone was completely aware of eachother whereabouts, and telling the passenger aircraft to do a "go around", which means to cancel landing procedures and punch full throttle and climb in altitude to avoid potential dangers. I will likely get a safety briefing in coming days from the Army on what happened in the blackhawk, but regardless of that, ATC should have called a go around. Just my two cents.
" They have all the credibility of MSNBC "experts". I'd like to know facts and so far all we *know* is that a Black Hawk collided with a commercial plane. It *sounds like* the heli was at fault, but we don't know that yet. It wouldn't surprise me and it shouldn't surprise anyone living even remotely close to Pax. Accidents happen and it doesn't have to be this big conspiracy. It can simply be an unfortunate training accident.
