Blackhawk Midair CRASHES into American Airlines in D.C. Flight 5342

oh boy oh boy oh boy we've got another

aviation accident and this time it's in

the capital Washington DC this is

absolutely terrible what's going on it

looks like a Regional Jet possibly with

as many as 68 passengers uh has collided

with a military helicopter I'm going to

go through some of the evidence that we

have right now uh it looks like uh first

and foremost that the plane uh that was

involved uh was an American Airlines

plane this is what the we currently

believe waiting to verify all of this

information the FAA did say though that

this is PSA operating flight

5342 for American Airlines it departed a

Kansas uh and it was a Bombadier

Regional Jet which collided midair with

a Sikorski h60 that is the Blackhawk

helicopter

apparently or potentially either a

police helicopter or a military

helicopter it's unclear exactly which it

is uh the first Reuters report was that

it was a military helicopter some people

say it was a police helicopter uh

multiple uh agencies here responding

from three different states uh in the

area uh you've also got uh Ted Cruz

announcing that there are indeed

fatalities Donald Trump has been briefed

on this and they're working on a resp

response right now to uh save as many

lives as possible search and rescue

continuing uh right now but let's take a

look at uh what appears to be the

potential traffic uh data uh and then I

want to talk to you a little bit about

the airport and and give you my opinion

on potentially what happened uh so first

let's take a look at this this is sort

of an

adsb uh exchange uh uh sort of flight

path here you could see this happen at

about 1 147 148 Zulu time you can Co

convert that to your own time frame it's

about uh about maybe 50 minutes Oro uh

as of the time of this recording but

anyway uh what you're going to look at

here is you're going to look at let's

pull it to the beginning here we're

going to look at uh the plane right here

uh and this right here which is actually

a helicopter showing up as a plane right

here and that appears to be the impact

site right here uh so if we sort of

naturally extend the path that this

plane is on and we have some webcam

footage of of the actual accident as

well if we extend what the plane is

doing the plane was destined to land at

this airport it looks like the plane was

uh expecting to land on Runway

33 uh that's because you'll see this

I'll zoom in on this in just a moment

but I want you to see that lineup for

Runway 33 and then pay attention to

where that helicopter is coming from

it's coming from the Park area uh and

it's flying right over the Final

Approach uh region here of the airport

uh so I I'll talk about my opinions in

just a moment about what's going on here

you also do In fairness have an Air

Force Base right here so you certainly

would expect to have multiple

controllers uh you've got a military Air

Force Base right here you've got a

commercial airport right here uh so it's

unclear if this helicopter was coming in

for a landing here but it actually looks

like and I'll show you the webcam

footage that the plane likely descended

on top of the helicopter on its approach

to Runway 33 right here a little bit of

a lag in how those uh those end up

updating on that footage there but let's

take a look at what that setup looks

like here and then try to break down

what's going on the airport is currently

shut down uh via the uh temporary flight

restriction in notm uh fully shut down

and uh it's expected to be shut down uh

until at least uh another hour here but

likely longer now it's just listed until

uh 8:00 p.m. PST you could see that

there on the side uh some uh uh I'm

going to get that webcam footage up for

us as well uh but it does look like this

uh PSA Airlines flight departed at 522

p.m. uh if this is indeed the correct

flight it appears to be based on what

the FAA is saying uh but please verify

this uh it looks like this flight

departed 5:22 p.m. central Time and uh

crashed at a approximately 8:48 p.m.

Eastern uh time you can see here

indicates landed 6 minutes early but it

as we know did not indeed land uh let's

take a peek here and then try to

understand or surmise what potentially

happened here so it looks like the

helicopter was here at East bomic Park

uh and helicopters they don't have

runways they can use a Runway to land

but they usually use taxiways to land or

they just hover essentially straight

down and then we have uh what is at

least listed as an Air Force Base here

in fact you could see here this is the

Marine one hanger so this appears to be

a military helicopter pad right here you

could see the squares with the multiple

different pads there for helicopters to

land uh and then you could see right

here Runway

33 uh and so if we go into forf flight

here we'll be able to do a little bit of

understanding of Po potentially what

could have happened here so we could see

that Runway 33 is currently closed there

on the right I'm blocking that a little

bit there let me remove myself uh we can

see that Runway is closed right now we

can also see foreflight indicating that

was at at least presently is the best

Runway to use for wind purposes uh and

it uses a left traffic style approach uh

which means uh that this uh we'll take a

screenshot of this here and then we'll

um uh we'll draw out what this

potentially looks like

so stand by one moment while I pull that

up but this is this is devastating and

we're going to give you an example here

uh using a model of a plane uh of what I

think may have gone down this is

obviously just breaking uh so there is

always the possibility that as new

information comes out what actually

happened differs substantially and it's

unclear how many people have tragically

lost their lives here so we want to be

very respectful and careful here uh but

let's take a look at this and then I'll

show you the webcam footage so take a

peek here uh this right here uh is uh

what a left traffic would have looked

like for a jet you would have come uh in

for a final like this uh and typically

you would have likely an extended base

over the pomac river here we could even

go into forf flight to see what kind of

approaches we had if they were using an

actual instrument approach or or if were

just proceeding to this airport visually

so in other words they'd come in and

then you'd make your left turn obviously

it wouldn't be on this 90° angle like

this it' be more like this now now this

is very important because as that plane

turns and turns towards the runway it is

really really difficult to see what is

below you uh and that I think is where

the oopsy happened here in addition to

obviously an air traffic control problem

uh so let's use this one for a moment

it's a little up close here so consider

a plane for a moment when a plane makes

that turn and then lines up for that

Runway uh it's coming down and

descending like this it's really

difficult to see what's right below you

you're really relying on air traffic

control to tell you hey you're clear to

land uh and actually let's go to this

camera there we go all right so if if

you're coming in to land like this and

there's a helicopter coming in from

below you might actually land right on

top of that helicopter without even

realizing they were there in the first

place now this is an air traffic control

issue in part it's also potentially a

pilot oopsy doopsy uh given that Pilots

also have traffic on uh not only their

consoles but I personally as a pilot

keep an iPad uh with the traffic up all

the time but there's a lot going on

right before landing and you also

generally don't expect a helicopter to

all of a sudden enter the active Runway

final flight path uh so let's take a

look at that um webcam footage and

you'll be able to get an idea of what

this looks like and how what I

describe might be exactly what happened

this right here appears to be departing

traffic

I want you to look right here at this

being what looks like the landing

traffic right here you can see how low

that plane is setting up on that Runway

and in just a moment there it is you see

the

explosion uh of of a collision between

that plane and a helicopter now uh both

of them then plummet to the ground this

is now the zoomed up version and right

here is what I want you to pay attention

to you see those two dots right there

those appear to be the positioning

lights or the strobes of the

helicopter uh note there is another

strobe right here which appears to be um

a tower or some kind of beacon on a

tower uh but what I want you to see

right here is you could see as I'm

moving left and right those two circles

on the sort of the left of the really

bright Circle you could see how this

plane here is clearly taking off this is

the one coming in for the landing Runway

33 here's the tower Beacon here's the

helicopter and you'll see that

helicopter is below this Landing traffic

so that Landing traffic just came out of

a left turn so in other words if you're

coming out of a left turn the

helicopters let's say coming from from

this direction sort of where you are at

the camera right uh and they're turning

this way well look at how the cockpit is

it's actually away from where the

helicopter's coming from right you come

in for that turn then you level out okay

great but now can you see what's below

you not really because look at where the

positioning of the windows are it's very

very very difficult to see what's below

you uh in a plane uh so uh what happens

here well as you go forward those two

flashing lights we're paying attention

to do what I believe is fly directly

under that plane and helicopter it's

also you're usually not expecting people

to land on your head so you're kind of

not doing this to look for traffic again

there should have been air traffic

control from both the military facility

and the airport here maybe there was a

comms problem right maybe they're on

different frequencies we'll speculate

about that in just a moment but here you

go there's that last flashing light you

see right there that's just the the the

you know strobe and there it is

right under that

plane there it is and then the

collapse uh this is really tragic uh

obviously uh this just happening now but

uh my take is uh in terms of how this

could have happened uh it it is entirely

possible that the helicopter was on an

entirely different frequency because

there would be a uh tower frequency that

the airplane was on with hey uh you know

whatever this this tail number was here

I pulled that up again uh just so I have

it handy clear to land Runway 33 uh and

they would have read back hey uh flight

number uh or or they probably would have

written responded with American 5342

clear to land Runway 33 number one right

so they're like okay cool we're clear to

land we're coming in we're doing our

Landing checklist do we have the gear

down are we buckled up is every you know

are the flight attendant sitting down

we're coming in for our Landing uh and

so they're probably on a frequency

isolated with DCA kdca the DC airport

whereas that military helicopter is

probably going to go land where Marine

one is and for some reason they're going

on they're taking a different path

inside or I have no idea what they're

doing but they intersect with the

landing pattern for left traffic Runway

through

33 uh and when they do that uh rather

than Landing up here where that base is

and that facility is for some reason

they extended under this flight path

here and that's where you have the

Kaboom skis and it's bad uh reuter is

now reporting that 60 passengers were

scheduled to be on that jet which means

you've probably got two pilots UH 60

passengers call it two stewardesses you

probably got about 64 passengers on that

jet

uh and uh and then of course uh I would

guess uh at least two probably three

individuals on the

Blackhawk likely military helicopter uh

but anyway for some reason that military

helicopter who is likely on you know

we'll just just for the sake of making

this simple we'll call it uh you know

frequency 300 okay so we'll put them on

frequency 300 and we'll put them on

frequency I don't know 125 okay just

just for Giggles they over here probably

on a digital frequency talking to their

air traffic control and DCA is over here

talking to them on an analog frequency

say 125 or something like that uh and

you probably don't actually have these

two pilots having any means of talking

to each other so with the exception of

actually looking at their adsb

broadcasters they wouldn't know that

traffic is there and usually there's so

much to do in these Jets they usually

listen to air traffic control and assume

air traffic control is watching out for

them now I always say it's bad to assume

air traffic control is watching out for

you but I've been with maybe seven

different flight trainers before and

they've all told me oh no that's atc's

job and I'm like I don't know man I'm

I'm triple checking okay I'm I I panic

when it comes to seeing traffic but then

again the problem is you don't expect a

helicopter that's here to end up under

your flight path either and again

visually you just wouldn't have been

able to see them right right after that

turn as you're turning out of that turn

you basically landed right on top of

them uh so to me this is uh a a uh a

failure of the helicopter not to stay

away from that flight path and B an air

traffic control failure on both the part

of the military and the part of DCA I do

not believe that this is the fault of

the plane obviously more details are

going to come out uh and we're just

speculating based on a webcam video here

so there's a lot of risk of of uh uh

incorrect information here this is just

where I'm starting my you know

collection of thoughts from I want to

watch this happen uh as closely as

possible or unfold as closely as

possible and I hope as many people as

possible can be saved because this is

yet another tragic Aviation disaster uh

In America which is which is

heartbreaking is absolutely

heartbreaking uh anyway um thank you so

much for watching we'll see you in the

next not

these things that you told us here I

feel like nobody else knows about this

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see how it goes congratulations man you

have done so much people love you people

look up to you Kevin PA there financial

analyst and YouTuber meet Kevin always

great to get your take