Be good to hear Torches input on this information
The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) held a news conference Friday to discuss its pre
redstate.com
The following is long, boring and borderline incoherent. I switched it to speech and just let it rip. I recommend most people skip it.
You have been warned.
Everything I say could be completely wrong. It’s not but it could be.
-I’m a medically retired military pilot and a Civilian commercial instrument pilot with 20,000 flight hours (fixed-wing and Rotary) and an aviation safety officer and crash investigator.
Not much there yet, other than the obvious impact. The altitudes are set from a blind encoder, which means they’re normally set at an atmospheric pressure of 29.92 mbar. The display in the aircraft will be corrected either from an observed altitude from known point, which is what most helicopters do or the aircraft field elevation when leaving an airport.
Once in flight, at low altitude, both aircraft would then dial in whatever the correction number was that was provided by tower. Each transponder and altimeter is required to be within 70 feet in either direction of a setting given a by the tower in flight.
OK, basically in the tower “In days of old” the controller sat there and looked at his altimeters and he had one set at 2992 and another one at pressure altitude. Basically this is a way to give corrections for a pressure instrument in both aircraft.
Pressure gauges are quite old and if everything was working perfectly could be 140 feet difference combined!
Aircraft today use that but they also can have a Radar altimeter that gives height above ground. They also can derive their altitude from numerous navigational instruments.
It appears to me that none of these are the problem. The problem is the helicopter did not see the landing aircraft and told the tower that they did and would remain clear. Generally helicopters and all military aircraft can clear themselves.
It’s sad because the pilots certainly thought the controller was discussing the aircraft that overflew them at the approach end of the runway moments before, and the controller at night did not have the depth perception to tell where the helicopter was in relation to the approach of the airliner. Had the weather been worse the airliners approach airspace would’ve been protected and no one would’ve been allowed in it while he landed.
In clear conditions everyone’s is to see and avoid. I’ve been down at 50 feet or less flying down a drainage ditch in a helicopter when airliners have landed over me, no problem. (Assuming I got the hell out of there before the wake turbulence hit me.) I have been in aircraft landing over helicopters again no problem. But being at altitude just across the river and just high enough to catch an aircraft that’s coming in a little low on the numbers is what caused this accident. (when I say a little low, I don’t mean the aircraft was wrong. I’m just saying sometimes they land further down the runway so they’re higher at the approach end. (this guy was shooting a perfect approach. Ironic isn’t it?)
I stand by my earliest assessment. They’re gonna blame the helicopter. And the helicopters altitude and failure to remain clear was the cause.
A present and contributed factor was the failure of the controller to ensure the helicopter do there were two aircraft approaching him, and it was his fault for allowing the approach to take place with the helicopter in proximity to the numbers at night when everyone stepped perception is seriously compromised.
So the helicopters caused it, and the tower could have saved it or even stopped it before it began. Plenty of career Randy blamed to go around, except most of the participants are dead in the helicopter.
The people in the plane are golden and righteous. As far as I can tell the drivers did absolutely nothing wrong. It’s actually damn shame to have. They been a little high or a little left flown a little lazier they never would’ve been in the same airspace as the helicopter at the same time.
We’ll see what happens next.