Blackhawk / CRJ-700 Midair

[Meyerkord]

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/plane-crash-dca-potomac-washington-dc-01-29-25/index.html

Pretty awful news tonight. AA5342 collided with an Army Blackhawk at DCA. 64 onboard the CRJ, 3 on the helicopter. Sounds like search and rescue/recovery efforts are still underway but fatalities have been confirmed. Hoping for the best ☹️

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Many families are going to have a long sleepless night tonight waiting for news, a situation i wouldn't wish on anyone.

 

[zippy]

Many families are going to have a long sleepless night tonight waiting for news, a situation i wouldn't wish on anyone.

Internal info I got from friends who landed just after the mishap but before they kicked crews out of the terminal was not good.

The news is saying water temp was 36F... it’s been about 8 hours since the aircraft entered the water… math favors a recovery Vs search and rescue.

 

[P3 F0]

Good video here on what may have happened to cause this:

. I can't imagine the helo crews coming out of Bolling will be allowed to cross over that approach corridor any more (at least, at that point along the Potomac).

 

[Uncle Fester]

I can't imagine the helo crews coming out of Bolling will be allowed to cross over that approach corridor any more (at least, at that point along the Potomac).

I don’t really know that they have a choice. It’s some extremely congested airspace. I have a friend in the Show who was flying as a FO out of DCA because it was closest to home. He shifted his home base to DFW as soon as he had enough seniority to ask for it.

 

[Griz882]

Of course DCA was my “go to” airport when I lived in Alexandria but I never liked the approach to Rwy 33. This is a horrible accident and I’m sorry to hear of the loss of all involved, but this particular approach has always seemed troublesome to me.

 

[Griz882]

To answer some of the questions about the airspace, the helicopter routes are well defined around the area.

 

[Flash]

I don’t really know that they have a choice. It’s some extremely congested airspace. I have a friend in the Show who was flying as a FO out of DCA because it was closest to home. He shifted his home base to DFW as soon as he had enough seniority to ask for it.

To answer some of the questions about the airspace, the helicopter routes are well defined around the area.

View attachment 41782

Worked right next to the river for a while and drive over the Woodrow Wilson often, helos fly over the river at very low level all the time with USCG HH-65's doing their homeland defense mission, HMX-1 and USAF UH-1's along with the Army guys flying last night doing VIP transport and DC, Maryland and US Park Police doing their thing.

 

[ChuckMK23]

The professionalism of the crews in the face of cancelling approach/landing clearances is impressive. Dynamic situation. Why we have two trained, proficient and qualified people up front.

 

[taxi1]

Is RWY 33 a normal one, or used only when unusual winds dictate?

 

[Griz882]

Is RWY 33 a normal one, or used only when unusual winds dictate?

While it is routinely used it isn’t usually the runway that gets used a lot. I have flown as a passenger into DCA well over 100 times and can only remember a handful of landings on 33. Guys from the SHOW would know much better.

 

[P3 F0]

Is RWY 33 a normal one, or used only when unusual winds dictate?

Maybe this allows Approach to cycle incoming traffic faster? There was a United flight right behind coming into 1. I’m assuming the AA flight would have rolled out on 33 beyond the 1 intersection by the time the UA flight was ready to flair.

 

[Flash]

While it is routinely used it isn’t usually the runway that gets used a lot. I have flown as a passenger into DCA well over 100 times and can only remember a handful of landings on 33. Guys from the SHOW would know much better.

It is certainly less common but not unusual, it is quite a sight to see the planes going to 33 doing a turn a couple hundred feet above NRL/Bolling. They were definitely above 200ft though, the max altitude of the helos on the visual route depicted in the chart Griz posted but obviously got lower as they flew across the river.

 

[P3 F0]

I don’t really know that they have a choice. It’s some extremely congested airspace. I have a friend in the Show who was flying as a FO out of DCA because it was closest to home. He shifted his home base to DFW as soon as he had enough seniority to ask for it.

There’s virtually zero chance the final report fails to recommend this as an action… if that cut is a priority, there’s got to be a way to mitigate the risk by extending the helos south at or beyond the WW bridge and/or capping their altitude below whatever the airliners are at when crossing the bridge.

 

[Griz882]

Good video here on what may have happened to cause this:

. I can't imagine the helo crews coming out of Bolling will be allowed to cross over that approach corridor any more (at least, at that point along the Potomac).

I’ve been thinking about this and I’m not sure I concur. All I am about to say is based on my aerial knowledge of the area but must carry the caveat that I’ve never flown an airliner and all my FRZ helicopter experience is south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

If a helicopter were flying south down Route 4 it would more or less hug the Maryland shoreline. Once you are past Fort McNair any turn to the right (or west) would put you over a DCA runway in a matter of seconds. So, if PAT25 was told to “get behind” any aircraft coming into DCA the only option is to turn left (or east) over the Bolling complex. Even if the -60 pilot was looking at the far away aircraft, he would have to turn east over Maryland. From what I can tell (and I could be very wrong) it looks like the helicopter turned toward the west.

Sometimes I would fly the same route further down and when heading south the rules of the road had me turning inland (or east) to give way to helicopters flying north…exactly because they had to stay clear of DCA’s landings.