Quote:
Originally Posted by DaFace
I don't think any of us here have anywhere near the expertise to definitively conclude anything about what they could or couldn't see. I just know that other incidents that outsiders would conclude should have been easily avoided are less so once they really look at the factors at play. It's obviously not the same situation, but an A350 collided with a coast guard plane on the runway in Japan a year ago. People have asked how it's possible that the A350 wouldn't have seen the coast guard plane sitting on the runway, which seems logical until they actually mocked up what it would look like to the pilots...
(Note the slight break in the centerline about halfway down the runway. That's what they estimate the coast guard plane looked like to the A350 pilots.)
This is why investigations are important. We can guess all we want, but until they carefully study everything that happened, we don't really know where the fault lies. |
I work about a quarter mile south of where this incident took place. These helicopters are always out and they're always following a flight path that hugs the eastern Potomac river bed. Yet based on the coordinates I can see they'd drifted off course while at the same time exceeded the 200 ft ceiling.
And the helicopter pilots were warned
twice by the tower yet both times claimed they (Blackhawk pilot) were taking responsibility of the visual separation between themselves and the jet. As far as I'm concerned there's nothing these Air Traffic Controllers could have done.