even if the helo had ADSB out and the CRJ an "in " receiver and a CDTI display , what would have happened then ? . The crew would have spotted the Helo, maybe asked ATC what was that , and the reply of the controller would have been something like : " it is a military helicopter on route 4 , has you in sight , passing behind ." and then would you , flying the CRJ , take evasive action or go around after hearing that ? No .
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The primary cause of this collision is airspace design and normalization of deviance over the years.
I tend to agree with ATC Watchers take on this.
Some people are making out that if the Helicopter had ADSB-out switched on/ activated, then this would never have happened.
Someone correct me if I am wrong but if the Blackhawk has ADSB-out switched on then nothing changes for the CRJ on that night. The TCAS behaves the same, there is no display of the Blackhawk on the CRJ’s Nav display…..nothing changes. The CRJ crew are still conducting an approach that requires a lot of fast mental processing close to the ground, at night onto a short runway while ensuring checklists/configuration etc is correct. ie they have a high workload. During this high workload phase, ‘the system’ has seen fit to allow a single Human ( the helicopter Captain) to be responsible for the separation of the two aircraft visually, at night, in a busy environment while conducting a check, on NVG’s.
Is it likey that a single Human, with the sole responsibility, will make a mistake? It’s not just likely, it’s inevitable, regardless of how sharp and well trained they are, if you run the program long enough their vision, or their SA will fail them and we get what we got here.
The system should never have devolved to the point where one person accepted the responsibility for visual sep 6nm away, at night, in a busy traffic environment while dealing with their own high workload.
The Blackhawk crew had a high workload, the CRJ crew had a high workload, the ATC had a high workload, there was no fat left in the system. Humans make mistakes and any good system will be tolerant of those mistakes.
The system was not tolerant of a mistake, ergo, the system is at fault.