Passenger flight from Wichita collides with military helicopter in D.C.

[DaFace]

Well, this is awful.

Reports: Inbound plane from Wichita collides with helicopter near Washington, D.C. airporthttps://t.co/4dpNJb8rqT #kwch12

— KWCH 12 News (@KWCH12) January 30, 2025

Up to around 70 people were involved between the two aircraft.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by rfaulk34

My question is, even though they know (or should know) how and where they're supposed to fly, why doesn't ATC (or why isn't it already a rule) tell them to hold their position until the plane passes?

I get that we're all adults and 'i shouldn't have to hold your hand all the time' is part of it, but why not remove any possibility of human error in that kind of instance?

Firstly, "holding position" even in a helo isn't as easy/automatic as a lot of people think. It's not as simple as just pushing a button for "hover."



However, we also don't know exactly what the helo's flight plan/mission/training event was. Or I don't yet. Were they supposed to be just flying at low altitude down the river? Were they supposed to be doing the rotorcraft version of "touch and gos"? Or about a dozen other types of flight plans they could've been doing.

Another factor is that ATCs are not pilots. They don't know exactly what pilots/aircraft can or can't do. I've been given instructions by ATC several times that just weren't possible, or would've been pretty risky. probably every professional pilot has at one time or another. Which is why pilots are given the authority to 'disobey' ATC's suggestions, if they aren't considered safe by the aircrew.

Another possibility is that there was other traffic behind the BH, so stopping wasn't really an option.


Like I said before, until we have all the information, from all sources, and can recreate the situation accurately both chronologically and with every aircraft's position, altitude, bearing, speed, rates of ascent/descent, etc., it's going to be near impossible to know exactly what went wrong.

The thing is, airport environments are the most complex and difficult spaces to fly in/around, and working at night greatly increases risk simply because it's harder to see any objects much less determining distance, size, type, number, angle, closure rates, etc.