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❤️ "I love how you save us."
Those words mean everything.
Fire Chief Frank Soto Jr. received this sweet note and homemade brownies from Rem, thanking Spokane Valley firefighters for protecting our community during the #SpokaneComplexFire.
Thank you, Rem, for your kindness!
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Thanks to our amazing former reporter @Elenee_Dao, we have new info on the criminal history of the man arrested for starting a wildfire in Spokane. He killed his dad, but pleaded to manslaughter. The letter from his mom to the court was really sad to read. kxly.com/news/spokane-arson-…
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Helicopters operating in and around major airports is very common. In the United States, the FAA publishes prescribed routes and altitudes for helicopters in 8 major cities across the United States, I have flown almost all the routes in a helicopter mostly at night in over 7 of the 8 cities (8th one being D.C.) Here is the route PAT25 was flying last night, it’s called Route 4 over the Potomac River.
These routes have been in place for many years and particularly in DC, they are vital for the police, military, and national security to circumnavigate the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport safely 24/7.
You are operating a complex aircraft in a complex environment and you can get task saturated even with a two pilot crew like PAT25. Task saturation also can happen to the most experienced air traffic controller.
To give you an example, ATC may call out traffic to you and you confirm that you have it insight or maybe you spot the wrong aircraft. It takes one little thing to happen to lose sight of that traffic in question, e.g. a light flashes on your instrument panel, the person sitting next to you or behind you asks a question, you have multiple radios that you are listening to, you spot a bird, and the list goes on and on.
There are so many questions that will probably never get answered like, were both of the pilots wearing Night Vision Goggles (which give you around a 40° field of view), did they identify the correct aircraft that they assured ATC they had insight and will maintain visual separation with, how many other aircraft was the controller trying to keep separated, why didn’t the controller inform the CRJ about the helicopter? It’s a mind boggling amount of data to digest even for a pilot or controller with thousands of hours of experience.
The reality is, this is a very tragic and horrible aviation accident that will hopefully invoke some kind of change to prevent this type of disaster from ever happening again. I believe given the high visibility of this accident happening in the Nation’s Capital will lead to changes. What those changes might be, who knows yet.
Either this route 4 over the Potomac is going to get changed or landings to runway 33 at Reagan will no longer be authorized.
This is the human element in aviation, we’re still discussing accidents that took place about 100 years ago and it’s important to discuss these accidents because you want to remember them and hopefully learn from them and not repeat the same mistakes twice.
Audio via @liveatc and Broadcastify
If you want to study helicopter charts more in detail, the FAA publishes them here and just click on the helicopter tab: faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_i…
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That airplane was taking figure skaters, coaches and their families home from a national training camp. It was full of talented young people just beginning their lives, moms and dads, brothers and sisters. My heart is sick as a mother.
May God bless, comfort, and keep the victims, their loved ones, and the first responders in the wake of this unspeakable tragedy.
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I was a Blackhawk helicopter crew chief in the Army.
I was even a Flight Instructor. This means that I trained Crew Chiefs and ensured that they completed all training annually to maintain their flight ratings.
One massive responsibility we had was to be the eyes for the pilots. We handled airspace obstacle avoidance and communicated potential risks to the pilots.
Quite often we would train as a flight of 2 or 3 birds flying in formation.
It was my job to have my head out the window and tell the pilots that the aircraft behind us was "staggered right at 3 discs". (We measured close distances in terms of the diameter of our rotor discs).
I can tell you after doing this for hundreds of hours, even when you know EXACTLY where a Blackhawk is, and you have night vision goggles on, it is EXTREMELY hard to SEE the aircraft.
These birds are designed to be hard to see at night.
The red and green lights on the side get lost in the lights of the city below. The only "lights" on top of the aircraft are called "slime lights" because they are a very very very dim green.
Incredibly difficult to see.
If you are above the helicopter, even if it has it flood light or spot light (2 different lights) on, underneath it, it is still hard to see the bird because all of that illumination is below the airframe.
Another thing people should know is just how busy things can get on the aircraft.
Pilots are talking to each other about what they are observing on the instrument panels. This means neither are looking outside the aircraft.
The crew chief might be conducting a fuel check, where we would also be looking up into the cockpit at the fuel gages and the clock.
This CAN lead to moments where all 3 people on the aircraft are all looking inside the aircraft.
It's not supposed to happen that way. We are supposed to announce when we are "coming inside" or are "back outside" the aircraft. But that doesn't always happen.
Also, in cities like DC, the radio traffic is constant and can make it hard to filter out what is important for you to listen to.
Checking instruments, doing math, reading checklists, and listening to multiple radios all at the same time is HARD. Mistakes happen.
Anyone out there telling you that they find the aircraft collision to be suspect, have NEVER been in a flight crew and they have ZERO idea what they are talking about.
Ignore them all. Better yet, mock the hell out of them.
999 times out of 1000 aircraft incidents always come down to a series of pilot and crew errors.
Humans are involved. They aren't perfect.
Tonight, my heart and mind is with the families of those involved in this tragic event.
I won't join the chorus of idiots making speculations.
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The FAA confirms tonight’s collision near DCA involved #AA5342 and a US military H60. The helicopter was not broadcasting ADS-B data. The last received ADS-B position from the CRJ was at 01:48 UTC.
AA5342 was en route from Wichita to Washington (DCA) and was on final approach for Runway 33 at an approximate altitude of 300 feet AMSL. flightradar24.com/data/fligh…
Today I was typing and email and am still unsure if I needed the same Flyer or Flier. And I never googled it so I still don’t know 😂😂
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“Equal night” — the autumnal equinox welcomes fall in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere. And if you're on a flight like QF15 from Brisbane to Los Angeles, both!
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8. Todd Beamer was a passenger on United Flight 93 during 9/11. He was among those who fought to regain control from hijackers, causing the plane to crash in a field and saving countless lives by preventing it from hitting the intended target.
These were Beamer's last words:
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Twenty-three years ago, on September 11th, the tragic events that unfolded thousands of miles away deeply impacted communities across the nation, including Spokane. khq.com/news/he-almost-turne…
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It’s against journalistic integrity to promote a specific candidate, so take my license away.
