#dca crash

[nodirectionhome-ao3]

Very timely reminder that Trump fired the entire Aviation Security Advisory Committee on his second day in office and froze the hiring of air traffic controllers — a dangerously understaffed agency.

60 people died last night in a plane crash at DCA.

[flavinbagel]

A US Army helicopter crashed into a jet airliner

Everything we've so far seems to suggest that the Army is entirely responsible, and there's things I've learned from the days before this deadly accident that are just shocking.

CW: Mass Casualties.

I mentioned in an earlier post I reblogged that final reports on this incident wouldn't come for a while, that we would have to wait for a thorough investigation and report from the NTSB. For now, though, a lot of important details have been made available just through the recorded Air Traffic Control (ATC) audio regarding the mid-air collision over Washington DC's R**gan National Airport (DCA) between a CRJ-700 regional passenger jet and a Sikorsky UH-60 BlackHawk military helicopter. I firmly believe something is deeply wrong with how the US Army is operating--moreso than usual, I mean.

In this video, an airline captain does a fantastic breakdown of the radio communications/radar screen from this incident, (VIDEO OF THE COLLISION IS SHOWN) helping translate all the chatter and offer his insight. Basically, the Army Blackhawk helicopter was asking for "visual separation" from the tower, meaning it's all on the chopper to look out the window and not hit anything (in sky right-of-way, helicopters must yield to airplanes), and the tower let them do this while asking, "Hey you see that plane that's trying to land, right? Go behind him, ok?" and the chopper said they had the traffic in sight, but it seemed as if they were looking at a whole different plane, much further away. After all, these Army choppers are used to just kinda...doing whatever, and the controllers at DCA know this.

What gives this tragedy a sordid twist is when you see this series of events literally the day before, in which a (different) US Army helicopter very nearly does the same thing to a landing airliner at DCA, triggering the TCAS system on each plane... and then they do it twice more.

TCAS is basically an airplane's "if(goingToCrash){ dont(); }" system, which, if flying planes get close enough, feeds the pilots of both planes on a collision course opposing evasive maneuvers, called an RA. An RA occurring at all is cause for serious scrutiny in any event, because it means something else went terribly wrong. It also sets off alarm bells in the actual control tower. This shit has saved many lives.

In the video from the night before though, you can see the military helicopter ask for visual separation (familiar), fly so close to an airliner that they get an RA, continue flying right up the line of approaching planes, buzz past, and trigger an RA on TWO MORE landing airliners. That's three RAs from the TCAS system, almost like the army guys were playing connect-the-dots.

The following fateful night, this CRJ-700 was exactly where it was supposed to be: turning on a weird short final, focused on the runway, making sure the plane is landing safely without worrying about anyone getting in the way. Once you get low enough to the ground, TCAS shuts off (for complicated but pretty sound reasons) so these helicopter pilots did not have that last line of defense to lean against when they got as close as they did. If what I see is what I think I saw, I am disgusted at the cavalier mentality and behavior of these Army pilots. In the video with the three RAs the helicopter didn't even acknowledge what they'd done (over civilian radio, at least) as three airliners had to fly off and reset their approaches.

Now three Army soldiers and a whole plane full of innocent people, including members of the US figure skating team, have been needlessly killed. Obviously this was an accident, and one from which we will learn, but the more I learn about what happened the angrier I get.

[alwaysupdatenews24]

Fatalities confirmed after passenger plane collides with Army Black Hawk, source say

Read More

[babyenemychild]

American Airlines CEO statement regarding Flight 5342

SEE MORE

[stephen-barry]

*opinion*

DCA crash puts Trump's appalling unfitness on full display;

When crisis hits, he makes it worse.

[worldnews90]

Fatalities confirmed after passenger plane collides with Army Black Hawk, source says....

Read More

[trendusafd]

American Airlines CEO statement regarding...Read More

[werothegreat]

How the hell does a military helicopter - one of the most dextrous flying machines ever created - accidentally hit a passenger plane? Explain that to me.

Something is going on, and there is no way in hell I'm flying for the next four years.

[suntimeswolliw]

help wanted 2 spoilers!!

[crabsnpersimmons]

note to self that i will surely forget because this isn't the first time i've done this and it definitely won't be the last:

maybe don't do line art on an empty stomach

(don't worry, i ate)

(AFTER i finished the line art)

[linafoxoficial]

Some of my favorite characters

1- Daycare Attendant Sun (fnaf security breach)

2- Mr. Puzzles (Smg4 series)

3-Usopp (one piece anime)

4-Dr. Neo Cortex (crash bandicoot)

5-Stu (brawl stars)

There's more, but I didn't remember to put it hahaha

[moon-buggg]

@wyervan I just wanted to draw him lol

[sun-e-chips]

You’re relaxing in the resort room before heading into the park:)

[superstargaycare]

they're losers together

in this au vanessa's just the Daycare's guard, but once she and the dca get closer if theres some minimal matience that needs to be done she'll usually just do it for them to help avoid their fear of parts and services (they WILL bitch and cry the whole time)

[wyervan]

just a thought but is there ever a time where the arcade wouldn't open for some reason? like, Moon was sick or they were renovating the place or they just took a holiday off?

*Read in Sun’s most ostentatious salesman voice*: “Superstar Arcade and Playplace! A coin-operated neon wonderland for kids of all ages to escape to! Open 12 to 9 PM on weekdays and 11 to 11 on weekends. Ehem. Closed Tuesdays and most holidays.”

Besides their normal days off, I imagine they occasionally have had to close due to illness, weather, or other unforeseen circumstances. But it takes a very good reason for Sun to close unexpectedly. The guy loves working himself to death ☠️. Will power through colds and has a tendency to skip meals if the arcade is busy. Vacations are something that he hears other people do sometimes.

It became pretty obvious during the first Spring after the arcade’s opening that running the place during the busy Summer season with only two people wasn’t gonna cut it. It still took a lot for Moon to convince Sun that hiring a third was a necessity (enter y/n). The big thing that swayed him was Moon pointing out that Sun would have more time to do fun activities with the younger kids in the playplace if they had someone else to watch things on the arcade floor.

[tomorrowusa]

Donald Trump has sent the federal government into a state of turmoil with his mass firings, flood of dubious executive orders, and appointments of alarmingly incompetent individuals. And when something goes wrong because of his own malfeasance, he resorts to flimsy scapegoating rather than accept responsibility.

A US Army helicopter collided with an airliner just a few days after a frequently drunk sex abuser picked by Trump became Defense Secretary.

At Daily Kos, Emily Singer writes about Pete Buttigieg's response to Trump's demented tirade about the crash.

Buttigieg then said Trump bears some of the blame for the crash, as he is in charge and has already taken actions to make the skies less safe. "President Trump now oversees the military and the [Federal Aviation Administration]," Buttigieg continued. "One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again." At the time of the crash, there was no head of the FAA, as Trump's co-President Elon Musk had forced out the previous administrator because the FAA fined Musk's company SpaceX.

Yep, Elon Musk's billionaire ego may have contributed to the deaths of 67 people in this week's crash.

Trump also gutted an aviation safety committee days before the crash, getting rid of a three-decade-old safety committee that was created by Congress after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Because the committee was created by an act of Congress, Trump couldn’t get rid of it, but he did fire all of its members, which will make the committee unable to do the work of looking into airline safety issues, the Associated Press reported. Kara Weipz, the president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said a statement that Trump’s gutting of the safety commission, “will undermine aviation security in the United States and across the globe.”

Trump only cares about keeping oligarchs happy and himself out of prison. Public safety and health mean nothing to him.

Alexander Sammon at Slate writes...

t marks the first major crisis of the nascent Trump presidency, and one with particularly bad optics for the president. In his war with the administrative state and in his determination to gore federal spending, Trump had already fired the heads of the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard and gutted a key aviation safety advisory committee, all just 10 days before the crash. As the Daily Beast reported, Federal Aviation Administration head Michael Whitaker stepped down on Jan. 20, after Elon Musk, the spear tip of Trump’s “cost cutting” spree, demanded that he quit.

Firing public safety officials so Elon Musk can play James Bond villain is the mark of a malicious moron, not a leader.

Trump doesn't have a great history with airplanes. He once had an airline called Trump Shuttle. One serious accident can be found in news archives.

Trump Jet Crash-Lands; No Injuries

Trump Shuttle lasted only three years and never made a profit. It sits on the shelf of Trump business failures along with Trump Vitamins, Trump Steaks, and Trump University.

A broader matter is the existence of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). It's directly on the other side of the Potomac River from Washington and suffers from congestion and understaffing. It probably shouldn't even be there but it's very convenient for politicians who prefer not to commute to the better equipped Dulles Airport.

USA Today says...

The airport is particularly popular among lawmakers because it's more convenient to their Capitol Hill offices than either Dulles International Airport (IAD) or Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI). [ ... ] "DCA is currently at capacity and at risk of being seriously overburdened should there be changes to the slot and perimeter rules," the Coalition to Protect America’s Regional Airports said in April. "Moreover, any changes to the slot and perimeter rules threaten to undermine the access of regional airports and their communities to the D.C. area, as well as increase delays, traffic, congestion, noise, and safety concerns." [ ... ] The airport's longest and main runway, Runway 1/19, is 6,869 feet long, which today is considered a relatively short runway for a major airport. Because the other two runways are much shorter, most airplanes use 1/19, making it the single-busiest runway in the country, according to airport officials. According to air traffic control data, Flight 5342 was on final approach for one of the shorter DCA runways, Runway 15/33. Due to safety and noise considerations, the FAA generally requires aircraft flying around the Washington, D.C., area to travel above the Potomac, which concentrates traffic in a narrow area. Aircraft are generally required to stay above or below certain altitudes in the area to reduce noise impacts on both residential and tourist areas, including the National Mall.

With fewer federal workers and reduced regulation which Trump and his filthy rich libertarian extremist broligarchs demand, expect more disasters.