And where is the instruction from ATC to the CRJ (now flying a VFR circling approach to 33) to look out for the helicopter?
Seems to me that what had been IFR from VFR separation with the onus on the helicopter to spot the FW visually had now become VFR from VFR separation with no indication to the FW that the helicopter was there.
Might have given them some vital SA.
The CRJ was conducting a visual approach under IFR. However, it's a distinction without a difference under FAA rules, because visual separation can be given against IFR traffic just as well as against VFR traffic. The separation acts one-way, as it were.
Controllers are required to give traffic information to the aircraft against which visual separation has been approved when the flight paths are converging, per 7-2-1.a.2.d in the
7110.65, and per the next rule must advise both pilots if the contacts appear likely to merge. The CRJ should have received both, but got neither.