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Rob (c137)'s avatar

Another story mired in confusion and bullshit.

It took a while to get the facts that existed immediately.

Either the ATC messed up (unlikely).

Or

The military copter disobeyed ATC commands.

No need for a black box to state the friggin obvious that the radar and ATC information tells the story.

This morning I read that the chopper was too high in altitude.

Why the heck did it take so long to admit this?

Because journalism is dead and these alternative pundits are equally dead.

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Cindy Sheehan's avatar

Like the video says, the copter was almost twice the height it was supposed to be.

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Rob (c137)'s avatar

Yes I'm annoyed that it took them this long to reveal that.

In the 2000s, it was quick to point out whether ATC was at fault.

These days they just milk the story just like that stupid drones in NJ story. Again, how did they not know? Keep the people speculating about bullshit so they can blame DEI or China.

I'm so tired of the pundits in the alt media. They're no different than the mASS media.

But then, their whole livelihoods are based on making money peddling fear porn that keeps their business going, just like the media does.

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Chuck Nasmith's avatar

Will a black hawk meet BB on his way home? Hope Change Believe... Free Palestine.

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Lynn's avatar

For what it is worth, and my brain is mush having spent the last 3 days in the local hospital with my spouse who collapsed on the pickle ball court on Monday morning, essentially dead, but revived fortunately by a nearby nurse: here are my connecting dots. The two plane crashes (first one DC, second one the next day in Philly), were during the TWO day confirmation hearing of RFK Jr. I recall, in Trump's first administration, he proposed using this same man - RFK Jr - as a somewhat vaccine consultant of some sort. That didn't last very long because Gates of Hell contacted Trump and put an end to that consideration. But during that time, when RFK Jr was under consideration in the first Trump administration, I recall reading the local paper and on like page 33 at the bottom of the inside page was an article about how Trump's daughter Ivanka and her spouse and or family were in a helicopter and it "suddenly" suffered an air mishap (like losing altitude very quickly) and having to make an emergency landing.

Just saying.

For what it is worth.

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Cindy Sheehan's avatar

What Dave died!!!!!!! Thank god he was revived. Fuck, that's all your family needs right now. Please tell Dave I am sending love and take care of yourself Lynn! Holy crap!

(Yes, I think those helos can be remotely controlled)

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includeMeOut's avatar

What genius came up with the great idea of test flights of Blackhawks using a large civilian airport in the heart of the Empire? What could possibly go wrong.??

Another horrific symptom of the militarization of the US in its terminal decline.

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Marcion's avatar

they're not test flights or training missions. they are generals, pentagon officials, and other VIPs who want rides to their cars, or rides across town, because they don't want to fight DC traffic. the black hawks run these people around town all day long, and just call it training missions. it's an open secret in DC.

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Cindy Sheehan's avatar

You are both right---some test/training flights and some taxi flights for war criminals. When I was growing up near Disneyland, they used to transport bigwigs from LAX to Disneyland using a helo. One day, one crashed in a populated area (the flight path was all neighborhoods)--then those flights stopped. We would very often stop our play to wave at the Dland helo.

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includeMeOut's avatar

So the best these special passengers desired was a trip to Disney Land? Private rendezvous with Mickey Mouse?

What I really want to know is if I can call up a Black Hawk in Uber?

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includeMeOut's avatar

Wow, even crazier than I would have imagined…

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Ron Hollis's avatar

I think the Blackhawk crew were focused on avoiding another landing plane that was directly preceding the one it crashed into. They requested visual rather than tower control, believing that they were looking at the path of plane they were asked to avoid by the flight tower. If this really is the case then it would be clear to the helicopter crew that yes they can definitely avoid collision with this wrong landing plane it chose to focus on. There are many light sources all around this area adding to confusion and it could lead to being blind-sided by the passenger plane.

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Marcion's avatar

OTHER - on the air collision, it was really a long history of garbage people that set up this situation.

You may have covered this already, but a few of the smaller news outlets have been talking about the history of the Reagan airport. First, you have the helicopters flying so close to the airport, flying what they call "training missions", but are actually generals and VIPs who don't want to fight DC traffic. So they get the black hawks to do a "training mission" to take them to their car, or to their next appointment across town. This goes on all day long.

Second, you have way too many flights coming into Reagan because congressmen and other garbage people use their power to insist on direct flights to their home towns. Every year the air traffic controllers, Reagan employees, pilots, and others complain that it's the most tightly packed airport in the country. And Senators like Ted Cruz have said, Oh that's awful, we need to do something about that right away, but surely you can fit just one more direct flight in there:

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-celebrates-announcement-of-direct-flight-from-san-antonio-to-washington-dc

In fact, the plane that was coming in from Wichita - that particular nonstop was arranged by the Kansas congressman who lives in Wichita. Like Cruz, used his power to force a public airport to make a nonstop flight, to the bustling metropolis of Wichita. Anyway the approach path they use, along the Potomac, is an awful approach, added fairly recently out of necessity, simply to accommodate all these crazy nonstop flights for the garbage people:

"Even in peak flying conditions, experts said, the airspace around Reagan Washington National Airport can challenge the most experienced pilots, who must navigate hundreds of other commercial planes, military aircraft and restricted areas around sensitive sites."

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/pilots-worried-complex-dc-airspace-before-crash/3832577/

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Cindy Sheehan's avatar

thanks for this important info!

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Rick's avatar
Feb 5Edited

A great article from workers’s world.

https://www.workers.org/2025/02/83679/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-caused-the-plane-crash-not-dei

“What has come out is that the air traffic control tower servicing BWI was understaffed. One controller was monitoring both airplanes and helicopters; before 9:30 p.m., that normally should have been two separate jobs. The crash occurred at 9:00 p.m. According to the Associated Press, “On Wednesday [Jan. 29] the tower supervisor directed that [the two jobs] be combined earlier [than 9:30 p.m.].”

This was an accident waiting to happen. According to the union representing air traffic controllers, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, in an analysis obtained by the New York Times, “More than 90 percent of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the Federal Aviation Administration’s recommended staffing levels.” Moreover, “Persistent staff shortages and an underinvestment in safety systems have led to an alarming number of close calls between aircraft.” (Jan. 31)…

And lest we forget , Ronald Reagan broke the air traffic controller union in 1981 when it was striking about similar working conditions .

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