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   AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:09 JST AI6YR Ben

   • Matt Blaze
   • Risotto Bias

   @risottobias @mattblaze Left - Helo hits the plane coming in for a landing. That's bad, that's going to be catastrophic..

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     AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:42:59 JST AI6YR Ben

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze

     @mattblaze Appears the helo was too high per the chart. Yikes.

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:01 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     @ai6yr They usually do a "VIP hold" at DCA when Marine One is shuttling between Andrews and the WH, but not for other helicopter traffic (even for other VIPs).

     Steve's Place repeated this.
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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:02 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     @ai6yr Midair collisions are exceedingly rare, but the airspace around DCA is very complicated. There's a fair bit of (mostly military and other gov't but also medical) helicopter traffic up and down the Potomac adjacent to the runways, and the Pentagon has a helipad right on the other side of the airport.

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:03 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     @ai6yr 60 pax + 4 crew on the plane; unknown on the helo. Ugh.

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:04 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     • Risotto Bias

     @ai6yr @risottobias Tellingly, the radio chatter is about "casualties", not patients and there doesn't seem to be a massive EMS MCI response. That's very grim.

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:05 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     • Risotto Bias

     @ai6yr @risottobias This seems to be pretty horrible.

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     AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:07 JST AI6YR Ben

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Risotto Bias

     @mattblaze @risottobias Broadcastify has a feed for DCA's EMS/police channels, not good. Thoughts with the family of the passengers and crew of both aircraft, this one is going to be bad.

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:07 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     • Risotto Bias

     @ai6yr @risottobias Seems to be mostly on channels DC FD A3 and A6

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:43:08 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     • Risotto Bias

     @ai6yr @risottobias FYI DCA is actually in Alexandria VA, not DC, but the Potomac (where the planes ended up is entirely in DC. So there may also be some traffic on Alexandria Fire.

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     AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:48:04 JST AI6YR Ben

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze

     @mattblaze Not to fuel the conspiracies, but sure seems like that came out of ODNI at Tyson's Corner/Liberty Crossing. Not sure what else is over there. If it's a top level (Biden) spook that was a VIP killed in that crash I'm buying a roll of tin foil. #tinfoil

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:48:05 JST Matt Blaze

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     @ai6yr I suspect they turned it on late. The military helos are hit or miss.

     Steve's Place repeated this.
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     AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 12:48:06 JST AI6YR Ben

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze

     @mattblaze Start squawking near Parkview Hills right near Langley -- dunno if they only turned on their transponder when they hit that area, or they picked someone up there in that neighborhood... mansions?

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 13:21:44 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     Note that I am NOT suggesting this was a contributing factor here (WAY too early to even speculate), but a peculiarity of DCA air traffic control is that helicopters use a different radio frequency from fixed wings. The controller monitors both, and transmits on both simultaneously, but the fixed wings and the helos can't directly hear each other.

     Steve's Place repeated this.
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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 13:21:45 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     The CRJ seems to have been on approach to DCA runway 33, and the crash occurred just as it started to cross the Potomac. A few seconds earlier and it would have gone down over base housing at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.

     Steve's Place repeated this.
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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 13:21:46 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     This incident occurred about 2 miles south of another notable air crash in the Potomac - the 1982 crash of Air Florida flight 90, a 737 that hit the 14th Street Bridge.

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     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 13:22:05 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     • Kim Possible

     @kimlockhartga Reportedly the helo reported it had visual contact with the plane, but the pilot may have been confused.

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     Kim Possible (kimlockhartga@beige.party)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 13:22:07 JST Kim Possible

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze

     @mattblaze who is responsible for clearing the flight path for the helicopter, which seems the more vulnerable?

     Steve's Place repeated this.
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     F4GRX Sébastien (f4grx@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 15:04:35 JST F4GRX Sébastien

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze

     @mattblaze there is this thread here

     https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/113915199720147861