Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
They were flying over the river, not the built up areas. Not sure how much time you have flying in a Blackhawk, but if you are over the water at night at 200' your radalt is giving you better indications of how far you are above water than your bar alt. If the two disagree, which one do you think you'll be using?
(Same is true in the Seahawk).
As to your point on the cause of the accident, yes, they were not aware of the traffic coming into 33 (for reasons beaten to death already).
I'm going to offer a contributing cause that I think merits consideration: there was mention made early on of there being 1, not 2, tower controllers on duty at the time when apparently 2 is the normal number.
Had there been two, the helicopter might have been handled differently, but we'll never know.
The youtube vid some months back had a pilot who had flown in that unit, and he mentioned often getting "do a left 360 for spacing" in the past.
That would have sufficed in this, and other, cases where traffic comes into 33.
I have flown that route a handful of times during my time in the Marine Corps (admittedly it's been more than 20 years ago). I recall being asked to do a 360 turn over the Wilson Bridge for spacing (we were northbound) for traffic landing on 33.
In regards to your other comment about them not seeing the CRJ, I have believed from the time that the radio traffic was public that the controller was not specific enough when he asked PAT 25 "do you have the CRJ in sight?" Something along the lines of "PAT 25, CRJ on final for RWY 33 is at your 10 o'clock less than a mile, pass behind that traffic" should have drawn the helo crews eyes to the left to hopefully see the traffic. Even better would have been to have the helo do a left 360 over Hains Point.