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Thread: AA5342 Down DCA
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Old 30th January 2025 | 05:24
  #53 (permalink)  
Someone Somewhere
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Joined: Jan 2025
: Non-Aircrew
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From: New Zealand
Originally Posted by WideScreen
Could it be this becomes another case that the regulatory defined airplane exterior (including landing light) lighting (especially for small RJ) is simply insufficient to let it stand out in the airport / city Xmas tree of lighting?

And the chopper crew simply had the next airplane in sequence of landing in sight and not the one they collided with?

RIP
This feels like an alarm fatigue/ever-brighter-light problem. If you make aircraft lights even brighter, you'll start asking questions about other safety lights in the area and going round and round in circles.

Visual management of traffic isn't really acceptable, especially at night against a backdrop.

Originally Posted by Del Prado
Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: “NOT GOOD!!!”

Not helpful.
I really hate to say it, but I kind of have to agree. See above. This helicopter path may as well be a taxiway crossing an active runway, with the same levels of risk. Why are they allowed to loiter on the runway path; why are they allowed into the approach corridor with an aircraft on approach?

Can I argue this is the 'fatal runway incursion' everyone has been warning the US is going to have?

Last edited by Someone Somewhere; 30th January 2025 at 05:29. Reason: Reply to 2nd post.