PSA CRJ-700 AA midair collision

Old Boeing Driver said:
I have 2 questions.

I have used HUD and FLIR, but never NVG's. Could the helo crew actually see the aircraft on final for 01? I think at the time they were 6 miles apart.

Also, AA5342 received a TA and continued the approach for 18 seconds until the collision occurred. I realize an RA would not occur there, but would their SOP's suggest a G/A on receiving a TA at that position on the approach?

Apologize if these have been answered.

Regards,

OBD
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Can they see it, particularly the landing lights of an object against a night sky, yes absolutely. The question isn’t going to be if the other aircraft was visible, but rather if in the confusion of light sources and multiple choice options of picking the right aircraft in the sky could they effectively discriminate and keep visual.

Now whether the orientation of the aircraft provided an effective angle for a crew member to see the traffic is still to be determined. There’s a lot of stuff in an Army helicopter to produce gaps and blind spots in vision, along with the necessity to hand off the traffic amongst crew members as the geometry changes.


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I personally wouldn’t have had NVGs down while on this route segment, and didn’t years ago when I did fly it, just because being unaided would be easier than using NVGs in a brightly lit urban environment; however this being an NVG checkride for one of the pilots, that was the meat of their mission.

That said. It’s easy as heck to see around or underneath NVGs when they are down, in order to look at something unaided, which I commonly do.
 
I guess chatGPT still has some learnin to do.




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Minuteman said:
Several aircraft reporting TCAS RAs on the DCA RNAV 19 near FONVI around 1200 feet.

An RA does not require coordination, but it does require an intruder that is transmitting a digital signal, so it is very unlikely they would be caused by inadvertent radio emissions.


View: https://youtu.be/pOXV3AjESVU
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Oh hey, it turns out the Secret Service and U.S. Navy have been testing some anti-drone technology right near where all those aircraft flying into National were getting spurious TCAS RAs

www.flyingmag.com

Cruz Reveals Cause of False Traffic Alerts

Texas senator says slew of false TCAS alerts near Reagan National Airport was caused by government testing.
www.flyingmag.com www.flyingmag.com

I don’t think they stopped in early March.
 
MikeD said:
I personally wouldn’t have had NVGs down while on this route segment, and didn’t years ago when I did fly it, just because being unaided would be easier than using NVGs in a brightly lit urban environment; however this being an NVG checkride for one of the pilots, that was the meat of their mission.

That said. It’s easy as heck to see around or underneath NVGs when they are down, in order to look at something unaided, which I commonly do.
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Is there a reason why they chose this route for an NVG checkride? Why not do it in a place without the air congestion and light pollution?
 
arkavgal said:
Is there a reason why they chose this route for an NVG checkride? Why not do it in a place without the air congestion and light pollution?
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if it was a mission check, they were likely doing the checkride along the routes and departure points/destinations they use in the course of their everyday ops there, being the type of unit they are.
 
MikeD said:
if it was a mission check, they were likely doing the checkride along the routes and departure points/destinations they use in the course of their everyday ops there, being the type of unit they are.
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Maybe do the NVG check on a segment that doesn't required discrimination of multiple landing airplanes? It will be interesting to see if the NVGs are listed as a contributing factor in the final NTSB report.
 
arkavgal said:
Maybe do the NVG check on a segment that doesn't required discrimination of multiple landing airplanes? It will be interesting to see if the NVGs are listed as a contributing factor in the final NTSB report.
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Maybe, maybe not, it depends if both pilots were on NVGs or not. One can still see aircraft fine with NVGs on, and can see easily out the sides and above/below the NVGs when worn at the proper distance from the eyes. But, they do require some more head scan due to their limited field of view. It’s still not clear why the landing lights of the CRJ weren’t seen by the Blackhawk crew, as the CRJ was close and was pointing its landing light in their direction as it made its turn to final for RW 33, and that large bloom of light should’ve easily been seen, whether on NVGs or not. Even taking into consideration the cockpit structure of the Blackhawk. Again, the cockpit recorder of the Blackhawk should make this part more clear.

ppragman said:
Ummmm:

View attachment 82898
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The Blackhawk was still squawking a code, and tower had them visually. Nothing more would’ve helped if the Blackhawk thought they had the right traffic in sight that they were visually separating from, and even reiterated that when tower queried them a second time to confirm.
 
My understanding of the helo's mission was evacuation of higher ups from the capital, potentially at night. I'd like to be in the group that say's "just go do it somewhere else". But their specific mission is to get people out, at night, and that's the way the have to go, then I'm a bit more understanding. Probably if there was a national emergency and evacuation the airport would be shut down.
 
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