Airline pilots have warned of the potential risks that helicopters characterize within the Washington area earlier than the deadly catastrophe at Reagan Nationwide Airport on Wednesday night time.
A database Aviation security issues maintained by NASA have detailed two scary incidents lately, which have included passenger jets that nearly encountered helicopters close to the airport. The database comprises confidential, nameless security studies submitted by pilots, air visitors controllers and others in aviation.
In April 2024, the captain of the airline reported that he virtually crashed right into a helicopter as he approached Reagan Nationwide. Simply because the airplane was configured to land, the plane collision expertise warned its pilots that there was a helicopter about 300 toes below the airplane and climbs slowly. The pilots pulled the airplane away from a possible collision earlier than touchdown safely.
The captain mentioned the plane pilots had by no means acquired a warning from the air visitors controllers for the helicopter and that the pilots couldn’t see it, so that they have been “with out figuring out it was there.”
The protection report included a warning warning: put extra festive distances between the plane touchdown in Reagan and helicopters flying up and down the Potomak River close to the airport.
An analogous incident occurred in October 2022, when the captain of the airline reported that he had virtually encountered a helicopter who was embarking on a close-by hospital. The jet collision expertise has warned the pilots in regards to the potential catastrophe by sounding the alarm within the cockpit, for speedy motion of the plane to the next altitude. The captain estimated that the airplane got here 300 toes or lower than the helicopter.
