I wrote about so many accidents during my 30-plus year aviation journalism career that I can hardly stomach the feeding frenzy of “analysis” following the DCA accident on Wednesday. Least of all President Trump’s distressing press conference not even 12 hours after the accident.
To my best understanding, Kara Hultgren suffered a flame out on a poor approach that was being waved off. She responded either too late or her reaction / response was not how pilots were taught for that flameout. Her backseat aviator ejected properly and survived. Kara ejected after the plane crossed below parallel and was killed likely at impact into the ocean. Flameouts on final were a known occurence and pilots trained how to respond.
At Reagan airport. Trump jumped the gun. But two mistakes IMOH led to death. Mistake by pilot which final approach aircraft was supposed to be seen. And control tower understaffed and unable to fix or recognize the helo . Combo of 2 human errors killed 67. Both errors need to be addressed along with running these helo training while commercial ops are running at Reagan DCA. Poor FAA mgmt may be the bigger culprit.
The helicopter should never have been where it was. Had that been the case, the accident would never had happened. The primary purpose of the airport’s existence is to transport people to and from itself, not for military training. Clear the airspace of everything that is not supposed to be there and all will be well. No exceptions.
Get rid of DEI and you no longer have a DEI problem. You’ve taken away all argument for, or, against DEI. Keep the focus simple for the task at hand and all will be well. Quit trying to solve everyone’s misguided issues. Stay singular in focus. Get rid of the noise. This isn’t tough to figure out.
It’s really good to see PB’s name ‘in lights’ here again.
Anyone who CAN tie their aviation shoelaces can see where the problem at DCA occurred, as Donnnnn aptly points out. We don’t need the obsessive, time consuming and costly NTSB investigation results to figure it mostly out. The plethora of data available already show where the causal problems were to those of us who know how to pull back on the stick and make the houses get smaller.
One ATC type doing duty as ground/tower/approach when two or more were called for was a major part of the problem. A radar scope video I saw showed a “CA” (I surmise conflict alert?) for both airplanes as they were converging. I’m guessing the guy in the tower was too busy looking out the window to see that. I don’t know if the CA on Brightscope gives an aural warning but if the full compliment of people required had been there, it sure wouldn’t have been a bad thing. It wasn’t until a few seconds before the crash that the helo’s altitude readout changed to 300’ from 200’. I’m not sure anything could have been done about the conflict at that point.
As you pointed out elsewhere, once the helo reported ‘in sight,’ the onus was mostly off the tower but it doesn’t erase the problem of ATC short staffing Nationwide or in that tower cab. Anyone who flies and uses their services (the insiders) knows this. The lawsuit by 1,000 people passed over for controller jobs after training for those jobs to enable DEI quotas is likewise a fact. So, too, is the Supreme Court finding that DEI quotas are illegal. DEI IS reverse discrimination to achieve artificial goals … an extreme form of affirmative action. It’s no more right than discrimination once was. You said it yourself … bending over backward to help the lower end of the bell curve is a recipe for disaster as showcased here. From where I sit, DEI is a major problem throughout Government and the President has set out to end it. It’s obvious you don’t like him but if you want US to keep an open mind then it applies to you, too.
In this accident, I assign 70% of the blame on the helo crew and Army training SOP. The other 30% goes to ATC.
I think that Captain Sullenberger’s 3 word response to trump’s political posturing on this tragedy was perfect, “Not surprised, disgusted.” I absolutely support DEI when it does the job of insuring that all persons, regardless of gender or race, have an equal opportunity at every job and position in America. If two applicants are equal in every way I also have no problem with DEI being used as a tie breaker in favor of the DEI candidate. Should unqualified persons of any race or gender be given a position they are unqualified for? Obviously no. Trump’s outsized posturing against DEI panders to his base and a threatened and aggrieved group of largely white males who feel threatened by societal changes. I am a member of that group; male, white and grey haired, and see his myopic focus on DEI as a perversion of Equal Opportunity ised in reverse to play to his base and sooth the egos of a fearful segment of society who are fearful of losing power and influence. I am with Sullenberger, his position on this disgusts me. I am also retired military and no “Liberal”.
DEI does not provide for equal opportunity. It is a quota system. I don’t understand how that is missed. DEI requires quotas to be met. Again, nothing mysterious here.
Hello Paul; timely return. Like you, I hope investigators are able to put on political blinders when doing their jobs because it’s clear politicians, pundits, and slanted news media will do everything possible to make political hay with this accident.
Not that DEI efforts haven’t gone off the rails in some ways, but the impact on system safety may be a reach.
Exactly. And you see the same kind of political grandstanding on both sides. On the left there are those suggesting Trump’s early moves regarding FAA staffing and DEI policies may have somehow contributed to this accident. The staffing problem(s) at KDCA existed long before Trump took the oath.
The way it’s shaping up, it appears the most impactful response to this tragedy is to limit VFR helicopter operations when airliners are operating. I understand some of these operations have been deemed “important” to national security, but they can practice during periods when airline operations are at a low point. Perhaps between 0200 - 0400.
The “CA” did cause an aural alarm in the tower cab. It can be heard in the background as the tower controller contacts the helicopter and asks (for the second time) “do you have traffic in sight”?
The helicopter responds with the same request as previous: “traffic in sight, request visual sep”.
The controller again approved the request and asked the helo to “pass behind” the traffic.
I could be wrong Paul, maybe I missed it reported otherwise, but I had the impression the female Captain with 500 hours was being given a routine eval ride by the male CW2 instructor pilot with 1000 hours. While the Caption being a higher rank, outranked the CW2, she would not be in command of the eval ride other than demonstrating she had the ability. In fact the case may be she was not yet allowed to be a PIC in that helicopter at that time in that unit.
Merit based hiring and promotions are the only way to maximize safety and efficiency. From my research, she was enjoying an exceptional life, and it ended too soon. This disaster will get a thorough investigation.
I miss Paul’s videos and his opinions.
So your suggested fix is to have them only run training flights during the circadian low? That doesn’t seem like a fix, that seems like shifting the problem from one area to another.
Kara, her family and friends have long ago paid the price.
Additional annoyance was with Pol/Sr Mil reaction that suddenly this 20 year, known F-14 contributing tech issue was of national importance, devaluing all who came before.
DEI is great in theory, a complete failure in practice. DEI in practice always reverts to quotas just like affirmative action did and does. There is no difference in the end. All quotas.
Paul, anytime you use a metric other than competence to hire someone you run the risk of an incompetent candidate. By definition that is what DEI is, instead of focusing solely on competence we are using a DIFFERENT METRIC. It is obviously unsafe to allow any form of DEI in aviation, but it’s stupid to allow it anywhere else. People should be hired for their merit, not for a meaningless attributes like their “sex”, “gender identity”, or “race”. No one cares about that shit when they are in the back of your airplane, they care that are QUALIFIED. That should be the ONLY STANDARD, full stop. I saw DEI effect safety as a flight instructor all the time, as unqualified and inept candidates passed checkrides, likely because the examiner was afraid of the “race” or “feminism” card being pulled. If you think it’s not happening in the airlines, think again. Things change Paul, and in this case they have changed for the worse.
With no inside information on my part her previous job was at the white house in a DEI like job. Suspect all trump needed for his stupid, ill-timed remarks. What struck me was trainee was at desk job for x amount of time and obviously transferred to this army unit recently. 500 hrs with none of it likely recent, flying a training mission is an area where tolerances matter. Here we have a distracted co/training pilot helping an overloaded trainee - accidents will occur.
I skipped most of the politically charged opinions in the comments. I’m just happy to see my favorite writer make an appearance regardless of the topic. Thanks for stopping by Paul. Now if I could get a video with 5, 6, maybe 7 stripes on the epaulets.
I disagree that there is anything great about the theory. It is unjust to hire solely based on race, sex, or so called “gender identity”. By definition hiring based on those qualifiers IS discrimination. Everything about DEI is unjust, racist, sexist, and has no place in our American system. Hire the qualified candidate for the job, if it ends up being 80% men or 80% who cares? Get the qualified people for the job and allow anyone to ATTEMPT to prove themselves qualified.
After the Gulf War I was visiting Israel. A friend introduced me to his friend who, at the time, was a General in the IDF. During conversation, I asked him about the effectiveness of women in the Israeli military. His immediate response surprised me answering, “It’s a problem”. He explained, “Israel is a small country and unlike the U.S. does not have sufficient troops without enlisting women. The problem is, during combat, the men protect the women instead of killing the enemy”. Imagine that.