Originally Posted by
WillowRun 6-3
I'm applying SLF/attorney license here (hey, there's poetic license, so why not?) of repeating - with some editing - a post I placed on the R&N thread about testing at DCA.
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It is known that ADSB-Out is not active on the Army and other certain missions in the relevant airspace. Is there also a pattern or practice of operating with a mindset that FAA ATC is a necessary nuisance, to be indulged but not focused upon as closely as other airspace users? If any reader asserts this question accuses the Army pilots or any one of them in the helicopter on January 29 of negligence - that would be incorrect. The way in which the airspace had been designed, managed and operated handed those pilots a pre-determined normalization of complacency - so it appears, does it not?. They operated their flight within the system they had been given, which does not constitute negligence. The designers, managers, and operators of that system . . . well, it will be for the courts to sort out whether the exception to the removal of federal immunity to tort claims applies to those systemic level actions, or not. If it were not for the existence of the discretionary function exception, I personally believe the race to the courthouse would already have been a feeding frenzy worthy of the most biting negative stereotypes about lawyers.
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I really value your contributions, as you bring an analytical and legalistic mind to bear, and help others understand some of the issues. However... from my (simplistic) viewpoint, the helo pilot explicitly requested visual separation. That's explicitly requesting the right? responsibilty? to keep themselves separated from other traffic. This they failed to do. Surely that is negligence.
There were other holes in the cheese, so the pilot was working in a compromised environment.
I'm just an SLF, so no domain expertise at all.