PS: Hello, Ralph. I like how Trump's people are not mincing words. This seems kind of. new to me, for the GOP. It's very encouraging. Agreed on the nvg and the transponder.

Whatever Trump did, Butt-edge did, etc., this is all long-term stuff. It takes a long time to train these people up, and the lack of facilities to do it and instructors, during Covid did not help matters.

PS In the first news conference, Trump did say he overturned BO's DIE EO for ATC in 2017. Hopefully, this ends Pete Butt's political career.

PS SecTrans Duffy really laid (sorry) into Hillary on X after first telling her to "sit this one out," which she didn't take well. His adult daughter then tweeted that her father would never commit suicide.

Ted Cruz was told the helo did not have their transponder on, which would have given the ATC (and themselves?) more accurate altitude data.

It seems like it should be SOP for someone in the cockpit not to use goggles in the city, esp. near an airport.

PS: Thanks for the links, Adam. I'm reading Miss Coulter now. She's always ON.

PS: Me again...

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑎𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔.
𝑆ℎ𝑒'𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑌𝐸𝐴𝑅𝑆 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟.
𝐼𝑓 𝑠ℎ𝑒'𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑢𝑠𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑...

(Yeah. If only.)
Made me smile. ☮️

PS: Good evening, everyone!

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑀𝐴𝐺𝐴 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝐴𝐴 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑓...

Uh... ?
https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/faa-administrator-announces-resignation/

Is Miss Clinton seriously suggesting that this wouldn't have happened if Michael Whitaker had not resigned?

Because, (obviously)...

𝐼𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦.

Rebecca was many things. A good helicopter pilot, not so much.
More seriously though. You guys may have seen these (or not)...

https://anncoulter.substack.com/p/dei-hires-unite

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2025/02/05/the_armys_special_treatment_of_capt_rebecca_lobach_1089352.html

Cheers to a great evening! ☮️

PS: "Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs." Yeah, that caused it. It had nothing to do with someone flying a helicopter poorly and dangerously.

The Hildabeast has not gotten better at lying. She's had YEARS to get better. If she'd only stayed with her husband...

PS

Hillary Clinton, writing today:

__________

"US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes.

Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs.

Now there have been two fatal crashes.

Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast."

__________

PS: Yes, I agree, Alarmist, that the CRJ pilots likely could not have seen anything at that critical time. They may have seen their TCAS screens, one or both of them, and thought, just too late, that "this is just too close. What if he doesn't see us."

I talked to someone who's flown helos for the Army just today, Alarmist, about the relationship between and instructor and a higher-ranking student. He brushed it off as no problem. (I don't mean regarding this crash but from his experience.) However, I didn't bring up "yeah, but what if there's some Diversity hire outranking you, and you're worried about complaints ..." I didn't know the guy well enough to ask him that.

Therefore, I would ask your opinion on this matter, Alarmist. As I wrote this morning, in the General Aviation and airline world, it's not like that. There aren't ranks.

I will write a short post today, but if you have any input, I'd appreciate it. Now that I think about it, this was a while ago for you. The 1st part, teaching a higher-ranking pilot is something you'd know about but maybe you have no experience with the dieversity.

PS: Also, I'm just getting that this was some sort of CoG mission from reading comments. I know nothing else about what they were up to besides getting down the Potomac River.

PS: Thanks for the good comments, all. I didn't want to go over technical details, don't see too much of a point of arguing a few technicalities with people who aren't reading (your excerpted comments, Mr. Hail), but just a few things:

The TCAS system is helpful, but when someone is (supposed to be) maintaining visual separation, one may well see the alerts pop up. Parallel approaches at the bigger airports will trigger these, but one knows what's up. The actual (red) warning is suppressed down low (1,500 ft agl, I think), so that there aren't false warnings, when things are actually going as planned.

For Alarmist, yes, the CRJ pilots (BTW, it would have been about 50/50 - we'll find out - F/O flying or Captain flying, and whoever wasn't flying pilot would do that other stuff. A previous "Bluestreak" (PSA) flight declined rwy 33, but I don't see the problem in helping get traffic in.

The problem I see is that that corridor simply doesn't work, even had the 200' been adhered to, but then Pat-25 did say they had a visual on the PSA flight. Which, though, did they really see? Should the controller have not even asked till later? He's have forgotten then. Best, in HINDSIGHT, would have been to tell Pat-25 to hold north of some point, away from the 33 final.

The talk about altitude is clouded by the reliance by analysts of the crash on transponder altitude readouts. They can easily be off by 100, even 200 ft. (They only read to the nearest 100'.) However, the NTSB will get data from the airplane, including radar altimeter data, the latter being the most accurate in this situation, it being over water at a known level (within 5' of sea level, I'm sure, since it's near the ocean and the airport (highest point of pavement, I believe) is at 14'.

As I wrote elsewhere, with the '06 LEX Comair crash being an example, it's not really ATC's job to watch aircraft like a hawk. The tower guy - unfortunately only one, granted - is looking as spacing, watching aircraft exit and enter the rwys, and he wouldn't have been on the scope the whole time. Besides the fact that the altitude readout aren't worth that much in his situation, he could have glanced, either outside or inside (the scope) to see that "Hey, the helo is REALLY close!" That's when he made that last call to Pat-25 "Pass behind the regional jet." That was too late, mainly because Pat-25 could not possibly have been ever looking at the jet.

PS

BTW, the “circling” manoeuver would have left 5342 pretty much right-wing up as it crossed through 400 downward. They probably didn’t see the Crashhawk at all., and 5342’s nav lights would have probably looked in a weird configuration to PAT-25 in any case, NVG or not.

🕉

PS

Evening gentlemen.

Back in the day I was an O-4 aircraft commander with an O-6 mission commander sitting in the back. I would imagine the same concept applies, particularly if the WO was more experienced he was probably the A/C. She may have been PIC at the time of the collision.

I looked at a transcript of the comms with ATC, and PSA5342 was cleared for the Mount Vernon Visual Approach to runway 1, which beyond a certain point just becomes following the river to the runway.

When PSA5342 called the tower and reported being on the approach to runway one, the tower asked if he was on approach to runway 33, at which point the pilot (probably co-pilot actually, as they are often the flap and radio operator at that point) responds along the lines of, “we can do 33.” So ATC clears him to land on 33, which requires a “circling” manoeuver that would put the Crashhawk on his right and possibly less in sight than if he had continued straight in for runway 1.

Winds were reported 320 at 17 gusting 23, so 33 would have been a reasonable choice, but runway 1 would have given a manageable quartering crosswind.

So in a way, ATC might have botched it by throwing runway 33 into the mix.

Meanwhile the very curious training mission was bungling its way down the river. I doubt it was a CoG, since everything in DC and on down the river would be a smoking radiating ruin within minutes from incoming SLBMs in a SHTF situation. CoG would be going another way. Pat-25 was was probably just a night training mission for a White House selected diversity hire whose military career skyrocketed despite her being ROTC and not a Ring-knocker. She probably needed the hours just to keep the rating.

So there they were, bumbling down the river with their altimiter bouncing between 200 and 300, meaning she couldn’t hold altitude well, probably looking more at the river and the aircraft that just took off or the one farther down the river approaching runway 1, while PSA5342 was circling to 33 and descending right on top of the Crashhawk.

Sorry, but tower had more than a few seconds to immediately tell 5342 to execute a missed approach to avoid traffic directly in its path.

The diversity hire might have been to blame, though the CVR & FDR might eventually tell us that it was the White dude @ fault ... who knows with a new sheriff in town.

I still cannot accept that the controller did not contribute significantly to this CF.

🤡🌎

🕉

PS: Good morning, gentleman. I will have a busy morning and probably can't write much back until mid-afternoon.

I'll say this though - there's one area that I don't know so much about and that' the relationship between these crewmembers when it comes to the military. I am learning that this Rebecca Lobach* was a Captain as far as Army rank and higher than the instructor. Does that still make him Aircraft Commander, or whatever they'd call it in their realm of flying? He WAS the instructor for that "mission" (as it were), but then if she's higher ranking, things may be different than what I know about.

What would be the professional relationship with a higher ranking pilot (yeah, I know, D.I.E. for sure!) being the student, not a flight student in general, mind you, but being instructed in this "get the Regime Honchos out of Dodge" mission. (Perhaps this was just a one flight deal - as in, a "check-out".) I am not at all familiar with any way for there to be a case like this in the civilian world, General Aviation or airlines. (I suppose in G/A, the owner of the plane might receive instruction from one of his employees who is a flight instructor - that could get a little weird - kinda like teaching JFK, Jr. how to fly IFR when you are so used to the pampered treatment you sure don't want to admonish him.)

Anyway, that'll be another, short post. They are so backed up!


* BTW, for Mr. Hail, the only reason I didn't put her name or that of the Aircraft Commander(?)/Instructor in the post is laziness. I'll fix that here later and in the post I'm about to summarize here.

PS

Consensus that helicopter at fault;
CNN catches up with PS.

Quote:

__________

Latest radar evidence suggests Black Hawk in DC disaster was flying too high, but NTSB wants more proof

CNN
Thu February 6, 2025

Newly released data from ground-based radar came out Tuesday suggesting an Army helicopter was flying higher than it was supposed to be when it collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 a week ago, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.

According to the “best quality flight track data” available, the helicopter was flying at about 300 feet at the time of the midair collision with the plane on its approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, DC, according to a statement Tuesday evening from the National Transportation Safety Board. “This data is rounded to the nearest 100 feet,” the agency said.

The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk...was flying a training mission in a dedicated helicopter route where it was not allowed to fly above 200 feet, according to a published FAA chart. (...)

Tuesday’s update from the NTSB doesn’t fully clarify an already murky situation. Although the air traffic control display at Reagan National should have shown the Black Hawk was flying at about 300 feet, the agency said it is continuing to collect data on its position, work that will not be finished until the helicopter wreckage can be pulled from the water. That is not expected to happen until next week. (...)

___________

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/02/05/us/dc-plane-helicopter-collision-investigation/index.html

PS: A little moar news...

Kansas City Chiefs superfan among the 67 killed...
https://abcnews.go.com/US/dc-crash-victims-aboard-american-airlines-flight-5342/story?id=118250442

Dustin was among those killed on American Airlines Flight 5342, and now his family now plans to watch this weekend's game in his memory.

(The double "now" is not me stuttering. I simply copied and pasted.)

(Getting tired. Should be in bed.) Happy Thursday morning! ☮️

PS

-- On Rebecca Lobach and the "women in the military" as the dog-that-didn't-bark in the public commentary on the Potomac River mid-air collision --

(this is a continuation of comments made over the previous few comments)

In response to the line in the entry here: "It was the Army helicopter pilots who caused this crash." It looks reasonable to think that the woman at the controls was the single person most responsible, and that without her errors there'd have been no collision.

That no accident of this kind had ever previously occurred in the area, or at least not in many decades, despite heavy presence of helicopters and civilian aircraft, says that something unusual happened. If this were as dangerous as some are saying, why no collisions in so many decades?

You bring up the role of the White-male instructors inside the plane, and their failures. I'd add the following on that:

Those who have argued on the 'anti' side of the "women in the military" question would be interested in this entire situation/controversy.

The "women in the military" fight was mostly won by the 'pro' side -- such that even Fox News I expect might tend now to hero-worship women in the military (including this Nancy Mace, Republican Congresswoman; who in young days caused a big fuss with her demand, successful, to be the first woman at a major military academy). The 'anti' side, though, used to make the point in mixed-sex situations there is often a letting down of one's guard by men, a lower standard applied, a tendency for some men to 'perform' for women, a desire for positive female attentions.

For a woman in her twenties in the military, she will often have just a huge surfeit of positive attention for men all around. The glamor of the Biden White House life and so forth, would tend to have reinforced this, I think. Does it affect the cockpit? (No pun intended; but make the pun if you wish.)

Anyone can see examples of the same in almost any mixed-sex organization with some sort of authority-command structure, actually, even places relatively far removed from anything like the military. The losses are hard to calculate, and the pro-women or feminist-sympathetic voices will also always have plenty of cases to point to of women who are qualified and do contribute well (the opposite winning no friends by mentioning, but every man, I think, has sort of seen it and knows it, "feels" it if you wish).

Maybe the standard implicitly demanded of women is just a few notches lower standard for a woman than for a man. In some unlucky situations that is just enough.

To sum up my own thoughts here in a single line: Would the mid-air collision have occurred if the pilot were a natural-born male named Ronald Lobach instead?

PS: Good evening, Mr. Hail...

As far as I know, (and I could be wrong here?), Rebecca M. Lobach is the first lesbian Black Hawk pilot to crash into a commercial airliner. She is also the first lesbian Black Hawk pilot to kill 67 otherwise innocent souls in a training incident.

Rebecca M. Lobach shatters that glass ceiling. You go girl! ☮️

PS

(more comments on the helicopter pilot Rebecca Lobach)

.

From "leadlefthand" (Youtube):

__________

(Rebecca Lobach's rank) was Captain at 28 years old. She joined Military aviation only in 2019 and had already been promoted to Captain, with a total of 500 flight-hours with the Black Hawk.

I can't blame people who are pointing out DEI practices in the military to have created a scenario where someone is pitted to do something they aren't ready for. In this case, flight training using night vision goggles.

You may say that Lobach is also a victim of the DEI propaganda since she lost her life. Unfortunately, 67 other souls also lost their lives needlessly because of political virtue signaling.

__________

.
.

From alantucker8740:

__________

I was just wondering how much flight time Captain LoBach had recently, since she was an aid at the Whitehouse the past two years. Was she still training during that time? Or was this her getting back in the saddle?

__________

.

.

From Grace Evans:

__________

The more I hear experienced pilots teach online about how hard pilot training is, it is beyond my comprehension how ANYONE would want airlines or military to hire based on DEI.

__________

.

.

From David Johnson:

__________

Captain Rebecca M. Lobach('s) journey took a wrong turn. With alleged 450 hours of flight experience, we don't
know how much of it was on AH60 and two years hiatus from flying, this type of mission was too ambitious. Her social media accounts are being scrubbed to hide DEI evidence.
She was never deployed but had 4 medals, nothing makes sense.

In life equal opportunity doesn't result in equal outcome. Politicians and ideologists are tying to create outcomes to match their preference.

__________

PS

-- On Rebecca Lobach, DEI, the U.S. military, and the Potomac River mid-air collision of 2025 --

A few things people have pointed out that are strange about "Captain Rebecca Lobach." She was the youngest person in the helicopter but had highest rank. How? Why? Her former job within the Biden White House would seem connected to her fast rise.

Anyway, a few points of potential interest I've run across, will re-post here:

This from Scott Patrick (written January 30):

__________________

As a commercial helicopter pilot of over 20 years I can't tell you how many times a female pilot and female tower controller almost got me killed.

DEI in the towers and in the Army (Blackhawk Pilots) have caused countless near misses.

I don't have the facts on this fatal accident but I do know a female controller in that tower and I know that airspace like the back of my hand.

Someone cleared that helicopter on a transition right into the path of a landing aircraft and it's a good possibility American never even knew that helicopter was there or saw them on their TCAS. I really want to be wrong on this but I'm probably not. May all their memories be a blessing and please send people to jail for this.

(...)

The Army lowered their standards and put a lot of women in UH-60's to fill quotas. The FAA lowered standards for all positions, including controllers. Most full time commercial helicopter pilots fly more in 1 year than many military pilots do in their careers.

__________________

.

.

From Nora Kenney:

_________________

If you listen to the way the ATC gave directions, he was a subpar communicator, but not to a fatal degree. The extent to which the helicopter was off its flight path, however, was fatal. In other words, the misstep of the helicopter was more serious than the misstep of the ATC.

____________________

.

.

Robert Karnes:

_________________

She flew a helicopter directly into an airliner and killed 70 people.

Directly into an airliner.

The investigation may show how this happened but we already know why this happened.

Woke generals put her in the cockpit and pothole Pete broke the ATC system.

________________

.

.

Wes Inman:

_______________

This pilot explains that the pilot of the Blackhawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines had very insufficient experience to be flying near a major airport. You can fast forward to 23:00 to save time. This is an example of DEI, giving a job to someone not fully qualified to perform it.

_______________

Wes Inman refers, by "this pilot," to an attention-getting 30-minute video by pilot Michael Blackstone,:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3PtOdR_VCc

.

.

Others point to how Rebecca Lobach was recruited. It is said to have been during a Diversity push in 2018 (recruited into "North Carolina National Guard" art first).

Remember, most people who wind up spending time in the U.S. militar, in the past few decades (since the end of the raft system), they don't just stumble in or somehow wind up there as if by random chance; they are targeted by recruiters to meet their own quotas, and offered big inducements to join. The whole process is at least a little unethical from the start, I think: The U.S. military as a bloated, overpaid, mercenary-like organization whose wheels are greased with big payoffs and benefits; rather than an extension of an old citizen-soldier model. (In most of U.S. history, to be a soldier professionally meant respect but not good money.) This all becomes potentially "toxic" when paired with the USA's various social pathologies in our time (enter, "DEI").

See this essay, by James Hartline, investigating the way Rebecca Lobach was brought into the U.S. Army:

https://x.com/JamesHartline/status/1885901419389317179

PS

In this account you don't mention the name Rebecca Lobach specifically, but from the way it now looks she may be the decisive weak-point.

Even knowing nothing else at all, a firs-run "what's different here" type of quick-analysis would point to a female pilot being unusual. It proves nothing, but it's notable for standing out. What is the traditional share of male pilots of these helicopters (or all helicopters)? I've seen, or heard, it's at least 90% male even today.

PS: Good evening, Achmed,

It's been beautiful here the last few days. (Almost 80 yesterday!) I've been playing in the garden. Today I fixed one of my deer fences, turned 4 beds, topped them with 14 bags of fresh soil and threw some poppy seeds. I have a little prep to do before I can plant my snow peas, but it won't take long. (Our dirt is nice and soft; easy to turn.)

I'm going to take the Alarmist's advice and install an electric string around the yard to help keep the deer out so I guess it's time to order some string/ribbon and a charger.

Today I learned that HomeDepot will deliver pretty much anything I want for $79. (I'm thinking about 100 bags of mulch, 10 or 20 sticks of 20' rebar, a small stack of cinder blocks, and some pavers for the walkway. And maybe some other stuff.) Seems like it might be a good deal and it saves me from having to load/unload a truck. (Hell, it's $25 in gas alone when I borrow the dump truck from work plus travel time each way.)

If I don't get all tired loading/unloading I'll have more energy to put down some of those bags of mulch when they arrive. Time to start making it pretty around here and get ready for spring.

(Anyway...) That's about it around here today.

Looks like rain for a few days, and it'll probably get mildly cold again before spring really arrives, but it has been nice being able to be outside and catch up on some yard work.

I hope you too are enjoying a great evening. Cheers! ☮️

PS: Now there's a D.I.E. mean for ya'. That plane is a Gulfstream or something rather than the CJR, but, yeah.

Yeps, that the competence article I'd read before - Palladium - I ought to keep up with that site.

Busy evening here. Enjoying the nice weather. They say we've got another "Polar Vortex" coming next week, but anything more than 4 days out is pure conjecture.

PS: Good afternoon, Mr. Moderator and friends!

https://i.ibb.co/LhBhCPXY/I-Did-That.jpg

https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/06/01/complex-systems-wont-survive-the-competence-crisis/

Good times! ☮️