Washington DC Plane/Helicopter Collision

[ThatEllie]

Is anyone awake and following this, or anyone in the States? It looks horrific. A US military Blackhawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines plane and both went down into the Potomac River.

You can see helicopters circling like mad on FlightRadar. I really hope they’re finding people.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/29/us/plane-crash-washington-dc

Very, very sad news. Many young ice skaters on board.

https://x.com/ChadPergram/status/1884874821764628696

Trump's out of order commenting, it just encourages people to make wild speculation.

Agreed.

Many major cities have low level helicopter corridors/routes that can be used in good weather, even at night..for example there’s one in London that runs along the Thames

@alittleprivacy - really? Saying 'why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do' isn't implying blame?

He also queries the helicopter actions. He doesn't assign blame. But he does say it appears like it should have been preventable and that the airline pilots appear to have been exactly where they should have been. He doesn't pussyfoot around the obvious or play at politics.

There almost certainly was someone at fault here and that needs to be fully investigated and not hidden behind platitudes. The families of the victims are going to want to know why this happened and to ensure it can't happen again.

I haven’t heard Trump’s comment but sounds like he needs to STFU, he may be POTUS but he needs to stay in his lane (that applies to Musk as well), this really needs leaving to the professionals.

The poor controller really won’t be in a great place this AM.

Problem is any comment from somebody like Trump pre-loads public opinion…

No survivors.

No-one could survive that cold water, hypothermia hits after just a few minutes.

Trump said that the plane crash could have been prevented. "Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: “NOT GOOD!!!" (taken from Mint).

No-one could survive that cold water, hypothermia hits after just a few minutes.

You might want to look up Air Florida Flight 90.

[edit] Never say never, it’s hard to be definitive.

Has that one also exploded mid air which tragically looks like what happened here though

Very different accidents.

Interesting that it’s still breaking news and Trump is already calling it a terrible accident. Is it an accident ? Their altitudes were over 100 feet apart shortly before they collided ?

If it's not an accident then what is it? I've seen people elsewhere saying it's 'very suspicious' and so on. Do they think a Black Hawk deliberately crashed into a plane, on a suicide mission?? Because that's what it sounds like they're saying.

I was specifically addressing the pretty much blanket comment that “No-one can survive cold water”,

I’m well aware that the mechanics of the two accidents were dissimilar.

I still don't see how it's possible. There's ice on the Potomac river. If the people are immersed in water at that low temperature, without protection like some sort of thermal insulating suit, then how can they survive for more than a few minutes?

No, he’s shooting his mouth off, as usual. Can’t even begin to imagine similar from a UK leader after a tragedy. It would be all about condolences to the bereaved and waiting for the outcome of a full enquiry. He really does just say whatever comes into his head. Very inappropriate.

I’m just a lady with a wifi plan and an iPhone. But yes that’s what I’m saying. It looks like it’s changed its flight path to collide with the plane.

Yes, I guess that’s a possibility that one of the helicopter pilots was on a suicide mission, who knows.

100 feet is SFA in many situations in aviation and due measuring/altimeter errors 100’ on an altimeter it may be nil in reality.

I’d also very much caution using Flightradar or publically available ADS type data for this, amongst other things the refresh rate of data is far too slow.

I know that won’t stop the Air Crash investigator fans Monday morning quarterbacking this…

Honestly I don't think that flight path proves anything, you can't see altitude on that, and we can't assume intention behind the change in flight path. Really have to wait for a proper inquiry into what happened.

And sorry I don't mean to sound snappish at you, I am quite annoyed at Trump and him sticking his oar in without knowing all the facts.

I refer you to my just posted comments about flight radar type info, Flightradar data is very inaccurate, especially if you zoom in- heights can be wrong and lateral tracks can be inaccurate, depends on aircraft equipment, and source of positional data (for example MLAT verses ADS with GNSS)…and if you need to look up the acronyms…..

FWIW you often see plots like that where there should be planned vertical separation.

You think the job of the Transportation Security Administration is to steer aircraft over Washington?

It was a news article that had the last point of contact of helicopter and aeroplane and that their altitudes were 150 feet apart or something.

I am a complete nobody, and you’re entirely right. I have no clue and this is just a screen shot of an article & an app. I do think it’s interesting how the helicopter turns slighting though.

I find it funny trump is calling it an accident so soon but then he isn’t exactly one to be careful with words.

I do find it very coincidental that an aeroplane crash has happened and the collision is above the river not in the surrounding high density areas - very very lucky.

I think it’s a suicide mission if I had to guess and go by my intuition but that’s just me.

You think the heads of the Transportation Security Administration somehow caused the crash out of resentment?

Or are you saying Trump fired them as part of a plan to cause the crash as those administrators were personally watching aircraft over Washington 24/7 and would have stopped him?

I've just heard a specialist on R4 say that their warmth would depend on how many layers they had on. . How does that work in the water?

The earth cam footages looks like it just flew straight into the side of the plane with no hesitation - that said, it’s dark, grainy and from a distance, so hard to see clearly but just from the speed of the lights before the explosion it looks awful