Plane collision crash near Reagan Airport

[Runwildboys]

Any idea why the night vision with all the surrounding lights in the area? It seems like that is the wrong choice to me.

I assume that, if true, it was a training exercise to get them used to using night vision in similar surroundings.

Edit: According to the video, they use the NVGs to watch for tree limbs, power lines, etc.

 

[Tabascocat]

I assume that, if true, it was a training exercise to get them used to using night vision in similar surroundings.

Edit: According to the video, they use the NVGs to watch for tree limbs, power lines, etc.

I understand the why but in the landing path of aircraft? There aren’t tree limbs and power lines there. It seems there are much better places to train than that location.

 

[CyberB0b]

Any idea why the night vision with all the surrounding lights in the area? It seems like that is the wrong choice to me.

I believe it is Army protocol to always wear them at night, but I could be wrong. I don't know anything about helicopters or the Army.

This is the view out of an NVG:

It severely limits your field of vision. If an airplane is descending into your flight path, you would have no idea if you aren't looking up.

 

[Flamma]

A much closer view of the crash in case no one posted it yet. At around the 4:20 mark.

 

[triplets_93]

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday was on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the U.S., officials say.

The military mission, known as "continuity of government" and "continuity of operations," is meant to preserve the ability of the U.S. government to operate.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cr...as-responsible-doomsday-readiness-2025-02-01/

 

[gtb1943]

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday was on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the U.S., officials say.

The military mission, known as "continuity of government" and "continuity of operations," is meant to preserve the ability of the U.S. government to operate.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cr...as-responsible-doomsday-readiness-2025-02-01/

clearly a important mission to train for. But there should be a way to make it safer; there have been comments for years that this area is too congested and that some kind of accident like this was inevitable.

 

[Creeper]

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday was on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the U.S., officials say.

The military mission, known as "continuity of government" and "continuity of operations," is meant to preserve the ability of the U.S. government to operate.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cr...as-responsible-doomsday-readiness-2025-02-01/

Normally, I would argue that such training missions should be conducted in a real environment, or as real as one can make it. This is not the same as pilot training, or training a pilot how to fly. I assume this was training for an experienced pilot for a specific mission. I guess the question is, what would air traffic in Washington look like if in fact there was an evacuation due to some kind of emergency? Is it safe to assume all commercial traffic into Washington would be suspended? Of are they planning to evacuate officials from DC before notifying the public of the emergency?

 

[Flamma]

I believe it is Army protocol to always wear them at night, but I could be wrong. I don't know anything about helicopters or the Army.

This is the view out of an NVG:

It severely limits your field of vision. If an airplane is descending into your flight path, you would have no idea if you aren't looking up.

I also don't know anything about choppers or the army, but I do know a little about night vision, as I have goggles, binoculars, and various scopes. Also some FLIR devices.

For anything night vision, you can't use them around a lot of light pollution. You'll just be blinded. If I just look up at the stars, they blind me. If I catch a porch light, it's like looking into the sun. They're meant to be used in dark situations.

 

[Flamma]

The pilots were fixated on landing AS THEY SHOULD BE.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/31/us/v...e-crash-washington-exclusive-video-ldn-digvid

and they were flying towards each other; so your claim the helo was behind the plane is wrong

I saw a graphic of the aircrafts path, and you would be right. They were flying towards eachother for the last 52 seconds covering 5 nautical miles. With about 15-20 seconds to impact, the Helo was at 300 feet, the jet at 500 feet. The jet makes a left turn in order to approach runway 33. At some point they met at around 350 feet.

So the jet was descending and the chopper was ascending. Most planes fly with the nose slightly up. Most choppers fly with their nose tilted down. That may have played a role in the chopper not seeing the jet.