Here’s a simple and clear explanation by an expert Black Hawk pilot about three major sources of error.
- Policy: Because a Black Hawk is allowed to fly with three crew, only one crew chief was on board instead of two, leaving pilots blind around 15 degrees, yet relying on visual separation. Four could be the minimum instead for better safety.
- Pilot: Light pollution in a complex route (e.g. night vision depth interference from river reflections) maybe contributed to pilot error. Something led to an altitude restriction break — reported flying around 300-400 instead of the required 200 feet. Another possibility is 300 feet is authorized for Wilson Bridge (Route 4) and they were too early in transition. The pilots together had 1,500 hours of experience.
- Procedure: Air traffic control gave a warning to have eyes on a single aircraft nearby, yet there were three other aircraft potentially requiring separation. When traffic control realized PAT 25 seemed not to have established visual separation on the right one, they should have been highly specific in updated warnings with something like “do you have the CRJ at your 5 o’clock” (potential blind spot, see point one). Instead, the final confirmation was only “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?”
Hey man, I’m sticking to the little birds, if you know what I mean. We may fly low and slow but I’m still here to talk about it.
Someone has got to point out that we had DEI requirements for 16 years and saw NO crashes. It’s almost like DEI was keeping us safe.
Now dumb and dumber cancelled all DEI, pushed talent at FAA out for being too diversity minded, and we instantly have two major deadly crashes.
Tesla and SpaceX have HR and safety records worse than North Korea. You put anyone from those fraud farms into authority, of course it’s going to be this unfolding tragedy.