SHOCKING UPDATE Midair Collision over Potomac!!

we've

determined that the existing separation

distances between helicopter traffic

operating on Route 4 and aircraft

landing on Runway 33 are insufficient

and pose an intolerable risk to Aviation

safety by increasing the chances of a

midair collision at DCA it's official

the NTSB has just released their

preliminary accident investigation into

the midair Collision over the Atomic

river between American flight 5342 and

the Blackhawk army helicopter the

preliminary report calls for the Banning

of helicopters from flying under the

flight path that would allow planes to

land at Runway 15 or

33 and calls for helicopters to either

take alternate routes or hold outside of

that Runway path when the runway path is

in use they go as far as calling the

risks at DCA

intolerable we'll talk about the details

of this and we'll go through the report

itself we'll also talk about some of the

experience of the pilots in detail in

the report let's get into the report and

I'll add commentary as we go so first we

get an introduction 64 fatalities we've

obviously uh that's everyone on the

American flight that's 60 passengers two

pilots two flight attendants three

fatalities I ities on the helicopter

flight this is a reconstruction using

the publicly available data by the NTSB

on the flight paths and where the

Collision occurred overlaid onto a

satellite image uh to give us an idea of

what we're looking at and what we're up

against what you'll find uh is flight

5342 which you can't see in this was

actually circling from an approach to

another Runway around to 33 this was

something we've covered in the past

before so we won't rehash that much now

but what you really want to see is this

lining up of Runway 33 and that

helicopter having this intention of

passing below Landing traffic now in

this investigation we find out that

there was instruction from the flight

instructor to the newer helicopter pilot

that they were too high and that they

needed to descend but before I show you

that I want you to see the graphic the

NTSB used when they explained this issue

in their investigation video it's about

30 minutes long so I'll give you uh the

quick rundown on it take a look at this

board here what she says is that the

helicopter per the FAA flight charts is

supposed to take this route right here

between about 100 ft in elevation above

the ground uh and an altitude of 200 ft

no more than 200 ft that's what we've

seen on the f FAA charts previously

that's what's reiterated on this picture

here however the papy Glide path the

papy guided uh Glide path into Runway 33

would put at best case scenario an

airplane at a 75 ft vertical difference

away from an underneath passing

helicopter and we know the helicopter

was high but the helicopter was not only

High the helicopter was also to the West

closer to this area of just 200 ft a

helicopter operating over the Eastern

Shoreline of the pomac river would have

just 75 ft a vertical separation from an

airplane approaching Runway

33 75

ft that distance decreases if the

helicopter is operated farther from the

shoreline and again

this helicopter the Blackhawk was

operated farther to the west and in this

region you have even less than 75 ft of

potential distance if both are

performing perfectly in other words if

the helicopter is perfectly on its Glide

path rather than slightly below it which

is possible since autopilot was

disconnected by this point uh which is

normal or that helicopter slightly over

to the right and slightly high well this

is exactly how you end up get getting a

collision course and this is why uh the

NTSB uh calls this risk ridiculous

essentially that this was even able to

happen and they call it intolerable

that's the word that they use but they

do it with a passion of implying that it

was ridiculous that this was allowed to

happen in the first place and they kind

of cast a little bit of shade at the FAA

suggesting hey you know we should have

known that this was going to happen and

this should never happen again so

there'll be a lot of learning lessons

and experience out of this but based on

just the FAA approved flight paths it

seems pretty ridiculous that it was

possible for helicopters to land or fly

under passing and Landing traffic now

let's talk about the pilot experience

which we now have documented in the NTSB

report now we can see that the captain

and first officer of the crj 65 both had

over 3,000 hours of experience you can

see that the captain flying the plane

had 3,950 hours and the first officer

had uh oh sorry uh over 2,000 hours both

of them had over 2,000 hours the first

officer was over

2,469 total hours 966 in type and the

captain flying had 3,950 hours 3,000 in

the plane so clarifying that both of

them have over 2,000 hours uh flying in

with flying experience so that that is

the American Airlines flight

5342 when we look here at the helicopter

we see a little bit of a lack of

experience now having been somebody

who's just gone through training myself

and I just became a licensed pilot in

command of a jet it's a Phenom 300E

Embraer 55s some people like to call

them uh I can tell you there is a lot to

learn and when they say that becoming

excuse me when they say that becoming a

pilot is a license to learn I could tell

you I probably had more hours in total

or I probably have more hours in total

than the pilot flying the helicopter in

that type

helicopter that's not a way of saying

that hey oh you know I have more

experience with them it's just a way of

saying I just started becoming a pilot

in December it's been about a 100 days

and the point of that is saying I have

very few hours they have very few hours

there is a lot to learn this this is why

I personally always fly with a second

professional pilot who has thousands of

more hours than me so I can learn and

appropriately fly this plane that said I

can tell you usually when you're in

training and this is a frustration I've

explained in the past usually when

you're in training what you're going to

find is the people who are training

you at least in your initial phases of

flight learning do not have a lot of

hours themselves so when you're first

learning how to fly a single uh engine

propeller plane you're usually learning

learning from people with less than

1,500 hours themselves often even less

than a th000 hours themselves then you

get to instrument ratings same thing

people with less than 1500 to 1,000

hours themselves when you get to

multi-engine training same thing people

with less than 1500 hours themselves

it's only when you get into the next

class of learning like uh for example

flying a jet that you start learning

from people with a lot of hours the

people that I flew with when I was

learning piston planes and getting my

initial licenses I would say the average

experience that somebody had was about 8

to 900 hours soon as I started learning

here the average experience that people

had that are training me in this about

10,000 hours you know you're talking

6,000 hours 8,000 hours 25,000 hours

30,000 hours 10,000 hours it's

incredible the differences in experience

but the point of saying this is when

you're learning how to get started

especially flying at night with night

vision and your vision is obscured

you're learning from people who don't

actually have that much more experience

than you when you're starting and I

personally think it's a problem now it

makes sense because once people have

experience they go on to bigger vehicles

but that's a downside because it means

newer people are teaching newer people

like I personally technically and

legally have the hours to be a flight

instructor but that doesn't mean I feel

qualified to teach somebody else when

I'm still in the middle of learning okay

so let's go back to this right here take

a look at this the pilot flying the

helicopter had 450 hours total 326 in

the accident helicopter the instructor

pilot had 968 hours 300 in the make and

model of a helicopter so you could

really see the experience difference

between the two here but beyond this I

want you to see the following here at

8:45 and 27 seconds autopilot was

disconnected on flight 5342 and began a

shallow right turn off runway one off

the runway one localizer to basically go

Circle over towards Runway

33 at roughly the same time so about 12

seconds uh 13 seconds before that you

can see here the uh cockpit voice

recorder data revealed that the

instructor told the pilot the student

that they were at 300 ft which is very

quick to do mind you I flown helicopters

as well and it's really easy to go from

200 to 300 ft it doesn't take a lot of

pressure at all and you're there so you

got to be really careful here and this

is assuming you're paying attention to

your ultimeter and that it is accurate

it is possible that some of the

ultimeter settings were also false not

just the settings but the potential

readings in fact in the NTSB preliminary

report they talk about the potential uh

for the pressure altitude data being

invalid for the helicopter which that

obviously makes things even more

challenging uh keep this in mind

ultimeter mismatches can like even a

10-point mismatch on your ultimeter

could be the difference of 100 ft so you

could think you're at 200 and actually

be at 300 and remember the FAA chart

only gives you a 75 ft difference and

they are going as far as calling the uh

uh pressure altitude is invalid for what

was being recorded or reported by the

helicopter data which does mean there's

a potential the pilots had bad data but

in addition to having bad data their

preliminary investigation is also

revealing that the instructor did tell

the student they were too high and that

they needed to descend now what you'll

find when we Circle over here see the

pilot or the um the pilot said they

would need to descent to 200 ft because

the instructor told them to and when we

go to where the accident occurred you'll

actually find the various different

heights uh for each of them which is

right here the pat at the time of

collision had an altitude of about 278

ft so that means they only descended

about 22 ft from the time that they said

they needed to descend to approximately

impact time now it looks

like uh right here as they observed the

Collision which occurred at about 20

4759 so 475 59 was Collision point and

they acknowledged about 2 minutes before

that that they were too high so they had

about 2 and 1/2 minutes to descend and

they only descended 22 ft which is a

sign that well maybe they intended to

descend they just never completed their

their their descent in fact the

helicopter was in a pitch up attitude at

the time of the Collision I found that

very interesting both of the record both

of them had Co voice recorders with

excellent quality 2 hours of excellent

quality the lights were

on uh we know we already know some of

the data about how uh one of the pilots

potentially uh stepped on air traffic

control and that's why they missed pass

behind but we also think that the

helicopter misidentified pass behind

which plane or keep which plane inside

anyway the helicopter's pitch at the

time of the Collision was about a half a

degree nose up so slight I mean ever so

slight that's very very slightly nose up

but the point is is it's not nose down

it's not we're not descending here not

that you necessarily have to be nose

down with a helicopter anyway you could

descend without being nosed down but uh

it is interesting it it 2 minutes to

descent 22 ft doesn't imply a very

serious descent anyway uh a lot of talk

that we also hear in this not only in

this report but also at the press

conference had to do with resolution

advisories and traffic advisories here's

just some damage like the impact site uh

in the report here so two iPad minis

were recovered uh maintenance records

seemed excellent there a review of

commercial operations instrument flight

Rule instrument flight Rule departures

or arrivals at DCA between October 21

and December 24 indicated a total of 944

th000 operations during that time there

were

15,24 operations where commercial

airplanes and helicopters had a

separation of less than 1 mile and a

vertical separation of less than 400 ft

less than 400 ft is a little on the

tight side you're definitely going to be

getting the traffic traffic advisory

within this sort of separation and then

usually when you get even closer that's

when you'll move into a resolution

advisory uh and this could be where

tcast will actually command you to do

something now we do know that traffic

traffic was announced and heard in the

cockpits uh of this

situation however it's possible that the

plane descended below the tcast

functioning level because tcast inhibits

once you get closer to the ground

automatically for a lot of these planes

and it's possible that that traffic

advisory would have turned into a

resolution advisory telling you what to

do had they had more altitude but it's

likely they descended below the inhibit

altitude and they never got a resolution

advisory which could have been a Savor

here here now personally I've had plenty

of traffic alerts especially coming in

for landing these as a pilot are almost

a nuisance when you're coming into land

because you're clear to land you're

configured you're looking you're

watching you're seeing you're avoiding

it's a little harder to do at night but

you're doing your

best and usually the I would I

personally would argue nine out of 10

times the traffic advisories that I get

as I'm coming into land are planes

holding short the runway like another

plane waiting to take off and it's just

flashing on my uh you know the Garmin

3000 the flight deck okay we know yes

there are other planes around so there

could be some complacency in the

sensitivity of these traffic

advisories I personally have also gotten

into conflicts where my my um dashboard

or my flight deck will be ready uh to

tell me to climb or descend and I'm

watching traffic pass by at 500 ft with

Air Traffic Control you know we're we're

communicating we're talking we're seeing

and we're avoiding we're 500 ft away I'm

flying in a jet and I'm looking I go my

gosh that plane is close and you're

you're just holding the Yoke with your

finger over the autopilot disconnect

ready to descend or do whatever the

resolution advisory advises but again

not when you're coming into land so

there could potentially be a little bit

of complacency around traffic advisories

but then losing the resolution

advisory probably unideal in this

situation it could have potentially led

the plane to climb sooner had they

gotten the advisory versus the high

level inhibit which I believe the

inhibits at about 400 ft it might be

around 500t depends on the model and uh

we saw in this report that the accident

occurred with a plane at about 378 ft in

height uh and uh we'll go ahe and pull

that height up again just to verify

because now I might be misquoting that

and I want to get the correct out of

here uh I'm sorry 313 ft and the

helicopter was indicating 278 ft which

again they doubt some of the altitude

readings that they're getting of the

helicopter now uh what what can be

learned from this well uh in in my

opinion I totally agree with the NTSB

that planes should not be just 75 ft

apart from helicopters on FAA database

charts this it's it's almost I first of

all I completely agree it's intolerable

but it's almost shocking to me that that

was even approved and not thought of in

the first place it just makes you wonder

how could the FAA

approve something with such a little

margin of safety in fact most of the uh

documents that you you know the the

charts or sectionals or you know uh low

IFR flight routes that you get provide

you minimum distances on purpose to give

you a buffer for example your minimum

buffer above terrain on most most of the

FAA charting is 2,000 ft in mountainous

terrain so you have a 2,000t buffer if

you're in Florida and non-mountainous

terrain you'd have 1,000 foot buffer

over

terrain advised on charts that the FAA

would approve something that would bring

vehicles within 75 ft of each other is

is mind-blowing to me now that's not to

say that there aren't other challenging

airports in fact there probably are uh I

just took the plane to uh Aspen which is

a challenging airport to fly into mostly

because your decent is about 2 and 1/2

times what you're used to so you know if

a normal descent profile looks like this

you know you're you're probably coming

in more like this it's a little weird

but it's okay uh buttered my Landing

into Aspen and coming back home so we

went there on Sunday and we were holding

short uh the runway to take off there's

only one runway in Aspen and uh the

plane in front of us uh takes off and

it's cleared for takeoff at the same

time another plane is cleared to land

facing each other so one plane's coming

in to land like this and another plane

is cleared in the opposite direction to

take off that's what they do Inn Aspen

because Jets Land one way and take off

the other way that's the way it is if

you have a smaller plane you could go

the other direction if you wanted to but

Jets take off one way land the other way

and usually the rule is the the the way

you fly out of Aspen in this direction

is as soon as you rotate positive rate

Gear Up you start your Bank to the right

to get out of Landing traffic's way

climb as quickly as possible then turn

left and get out of the Final Approach

path uh for for other traffic now again

clear day and this is generally only

going to happen in a clear day as you

know the field is yours if you're in in

the

clouds or you just don't go there and

they shut the airport down but what's

remarkable to me is even with both of

the aircraft seeing each other in a

clear as day environment with no clouds

you ended up having and we're watching

on our flight deck you have this plane

taking off and the other coming into

Land This One turns right this one's

coming into land

400t distance apart to me that's tight I

don't like that I guarantee you they

were getting traffic

advisories but here's an example where

you actually have on a daily basis a

normal takeoff where planes are pointing

at each other and like trying to dodge

each other as a normal departure

procedure that's odd to me so uh there

are few problems here I think number one

these uh sort of Standards should

certainly be reviewed for more spacing

and safety there are probably some

adjustments that can be made to the way

tcast provides resolution advisories in

terms of when it inhibits especially

around sensitive

areas but I think you know we could

start with having greater Separation on

some of the FAA charts and obviously in

other videos we've talked about calm

issues potentially using uh different

ways of identifying which traffic you're

following in this is a big deal as well

worth rehashing quickly on my

multi-engine check ride I was asked to

follow traffic in as number three to

land and I look they say off my left

wing 9:00 great I look okay traffic

inside

and then I look at my iPad and go hey

just verifying do you want me to follow

Charlie Alpha and they're like no I want

you to follow Alpha Charlie it was a

tail number with the same letters at the

end and I'm like that's confusing and

I'm looking I'm clicking around go oh my

gosh there was a Plane off my

left so I'll show you a little bit my

example here so I'm flying like this on

the downwind there's a Plane off my left

that's on final but then there was

another plane on base here and they

wanted me to follow the one on base that

was being blocked by the other and they

had similar tail numbers so uh you know

I'll tell you triple cheing who you're

following in just the limited experience

that I have major deal so a lot of

things to learn here in addition to just

oh my gosh you know what like there's

there's so much to learn and the better

the more you can learn from somebody

with thousand thousands of hours of

experience

the better because there's there's a lot

here and I do think a newer pilot

training a newer pilot in the Blackhawk

while that's the way training is done in

aviation also poses significant risks my

take thanks for watching and here's an

update for you stay tuned for more and

if you have any questions about Aviation

or what it was like to become a Jet

Pilot or some differences between piston

and Jet happy to make a video on that if

that's something you're interested in

thanks so much goodbye not advertise

these that you told us here I feel like

nobody else knows about this we'll we'll

try a little advertising and see how it

goes congratulations man you have done

so much people love you people look up

to you Kevin paffrath there financial

analyst and YouTuber meet Kevin always

great to get your take