Update: Current information from NTSB on February 4 at 6 pm: the plane likely tried to avert the crash one second before and pointed the nose to the sky. General Holt said the helicopter didn’t flinch as it dove into the plane. He points to the problem as something with the crew on the helicopter.
Original Story
A knowledgeable former air traffic controller named Michael Pearson told Greg Kelly on his show last night that the D.C. crash that killed 67 people was 100% the fault of air traffic control because he gave incorrect instructions.
The segment began with Mr. Pearson criticizing then-President Obama’s anti-white rule changes in 2011. You’ll catch a little of that in this clip. However, he then explains why it’s the air traffic controller’s fault.
Here’s some of what he says:
Mr. Pearson, who is now a private pilot, said it is not the fault of the helicopter pilots.
“It’s 100% air traffic control’s fault. It’s not only me, but approximately 45 current FAA managers and air traffic controllers agree with me. I spent about six hours looking at the data track and listening to the voice tapes the very night it happened.
“Before the media, it was very apparent to me, and I can tell you exactly why air trafficking did not issue proper traffic instructions.
Greg Kelly played the short audio of the air traffic controller’s instructions.
Mistake 1
The CRJ is the problem. They didn’t say where that CJR is. One o’clock, two o’clock, five o’clock, low, high, Kelly said.
Mr. Pearson said there are set air traffic rules that tell you exactly how you issue traffic. The problem with saying, do you see an RJ at night is that there are RJs on the runway. There are RJs in the air. He didn’t get the clock position. He didn’t say, off to your right, off to your left. Do you see the RJ in sight?
Pearson said the controller might have done it earlier but doubts it, because of the nature of how fast it moved.
Mistake 2
“Not only that,” Pearson said, “you have to have a means of separation ensured both before and after the application of visual separation; they had none. They should have kept that helicopter at least 500 feet or a mile and a half longitudinally from that airplane.
Mistake3
“Last but not least, the data track shows that the conflict alert was going off as these two airplanes were emerging, courses headed toward each other. There’s a loud CA, and it flashes on your screen, it’s red, and there’s a very loud, it’s like a smoke alarm going off, audible warning in that tower. And it looks to me like that, seven to nine seconds, that was going off, and the controller failed to undertake what’s called merging target procedures.”
Updated 2/2/25 07:23
- One reporter said: The controller’s initial callout of the traffic to PAT25 was specific: “PAT25, traffic just south of the Woodrow Bridge, a CRJ it’s 1200 feet setting up for Runway 33”. That was left out of the interview. It was mere seconds before the crash. Go to 2:16 on this link. It might have come too late.
- It is also important to note that the air traffic controller was doing the job of two controllers.
- The helicopter might have been flying within bounds.
- The PSA plane, CRJ, was flying within its bounds at about 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet. The air traffic controller’s screen might have shown the Black Hawk at 200 feet. Go to 24:46 on this link.
It’s 100% not the fault of the controller for *causing* the accident.
But it absolutely is 100% the fault of the controller for failing to prevent it.
The time that the controller spent making that final radio call to PAT25 could have been used to issue control instructions to the CRJ that would have ensured vertical separation (by instructing the CRJ to execute a go around with an immediate climb).
No one should be willing to accept a controller that takes this passive of a response to an imminent mid-air collision. He HAD the tools available to him to separate these airplanes, but instead he chose to try visual separation a second time – after the first attempt at VS produced no discernible change in track that indicated a divergence.
Controllers online saying “but but but the 7110.65 allows visual separation everything he did was legal!”
Okay, sure. Still doesn’t mean it was the right decision. In this context, the right decision would have been the one that didn’t leave both aircraft in the river with no survivors. It’s hard to argue that anything that happened in the tower that evening was anything other than an absolute failure.
He saw the conflict, and had time to make a radio call. It’s a real shame he didn’t take the opportunity to actually solve the problem that was in front of him.
This much I know, Trump is not at fault, the helicopter and controller are.
I’d bet mid air collisions are rarely direct hits like that one.
The helicopter pilot and copilot both would have seen the plane.
There were numerous aircraft “stacked up” waiting to land. Asking the Black Hawk if he sees the incoming plane is taking for granted that they were focusing on the same aircraft. I have a strong feeling that the helicopter pilot and co-pilot and some of the tower personnel will be blamed for the mishap.
ATC: Helicopter, turn 90 degrees left, NOW. Not: to helicopter pilot: Do you see the plane that I’m looking at? and Helicopter pilot looking at another plane: Yes, I have it in sight.
The term is IMMEDIATELY. Only used in an emergency situation.
It was the helicopters fault. It could see the incoming plane, it had the ability to hold position yet it flew directly into the aircraft that was landing. The controller has some culpability, but this was 100% the helicopters fault
Female chopper pilot trainee, DEI’s in the tower. What could go wrong?
The government is withholding critical details as long as they can because the details are going to embarrass Obama and Biden. Damage control is in full swing.
Diversity, our downfall.
Having done several safety analysis after industrial accidents, there is rarely a single person at fault in a safety incident. Safety accidents are often discribed using Swiss cheese as an analog. It’s rare for all of the holes to line up, but when they do, disaster strikes. The aftermath study will likely find that the helicopter pilots, the controller guiding the flight, the controller’s supervisor, the air traffic control administration, the DoD’s decision to conduct the exercise, limited side vision from night goggles, Biden/Buttigeig’s DEI policies and other factors all aligned to create the tragedy. The blame won’t be evenly distributed, but closing any one of the holes could have mitigated the tragedy. It’s really sad and resembles any industrial accident but on a larger scale.
Entirely correct. While the airliner can’t be held liable, the pilot monitoring should have acted on the TCAS collision alarm.
You obviously don’t have much – if any – experience with TCAS particularly at low altitude.
Ultimate responsibility for an aircraft lies with crew. Captain Rebecca Lobach was the co-pilot. Co-pilot responsibility is to search the sky for other aircraft. This is definitely a case of DEI. Lobach killed 66 people. Kara Hultgreen all over again. There is zero compelling reason to have women in combat, other than to assuage their confused egos.
No, the fault lies with the military. The helicopters were supposed to be flying at a lower altitude….
That is a huge point which the show missed. So, it cannot be 100% the fault of the controller.
I don’t think we can believe what we’re being told. It may be true, it may not be. That helicopter flew right into the plane. It doesn’t really pass the smell test. We may never know what happened.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the DEI hired transsexualconfused persons in the cockpits and tower were all broadcasting live sex on their Only Fans.
I’m a former ATC Navy and FAA controller who taught and designed the training programs for the Navy and FAA in some areas way back when.
I wont go as far as saying its the controllers fault. Its up to the FAA to determine this but I agree with the controller who said it is.
The problem in a nut shell, the controller was responsible to point out the commuter plane in question and insist the copter had verification of its location.
That did not happen due to poor instructions.
I will say the copter and for sure the commuter pilots were not at fault.
PS: I’ve herd rumblings they may have had night vision googles on that limits visibility and that is a problem in itself in an area of lots of traffic but I cant prove they did and cant prove they didnt take them off to look for the traffic. Someone said they flip up quickly like sun glasses on specticles. Dont know.
I don’t agree. It’s every pilot’s responsibility on short final to be looking out the window to avoid traffic.
Clearly, you are NOT a pilot. The field of view from the cockpit window, would have made it IMPOSSIBLE to see the helicopter,at the low angle in relation to the plane’s attitude for landing.
Additionally, the plane is in a defined, horizontal corridor of air, which it cannot deviate from unless for emergencies or it will not make the landing.
How could you possibly place blame on the pilot, over the ACT who has multiple radar tracks to decide where aircraft are,what altitude they are at, and apparently a collision alarm blaring at them on their screen, at the time, or the helicopter pilot, who was flying straight and level, in a helicopter, with viewing windows in the floor and ceiling, and had to additional observers aboard?
Honestly, if this had not happened at night, the helicopter pilot would not get a pass either.
have to ever piloted at night? Have you ever landed at a huge airport at night? I expect you have not or you would have never taken this position.
Lesson ended.
Well said.
( retired airline pilot.)
Are you a pilot? Do the planes you fly have rear view and side view mirrors or cameras?
On short final, especially to a short runway with a concrete wall at the end of the runway pavement, ( 33 at DCA ) is not a time to be looking anywhere but the runway.
They only use 33 for landing when there’s a strong NW wind. Like then.
The CRJ was in a left bank focused on lining up with Runway 33. Aircraft belly was facing the Black Hawk….. not the CRJ crew’s eyeballs.
That Helicopter slammed directly into the plane.
It was a perfect hit, like a heat seeking missile.
Real story, the DEI female pilot caused the accident. She was co-pilot on the flight. It was her job to be looking out for other aircraft. Women should not be doing men’s jobs in the military.
According to her husband, she was texting him right before! Good grief WTH????
She was a lesbian. She didn’t have a husband.
If so, that has to be against the rules.
That was a woman texting her asian husband on board the jet and not on the helicopter
If she was the lookout she has fault. Do we know really who was doing what there?
Yes, how can you pilot aircraft without a penis?
After all, woman don’t have a second brain in their pants and without that they’re useless.
Greg Kelly is a useless ****. He delays Michael Pearson to play a tape which most people can’t understand and then cuts off Pearson at the end. Fire this guy.
Ya he is so in the sheets for anything Trump. I know he was a marine pilot but he just gets off script sometimes with his opining and isnt a good interviewer.
This little boy Kelly’s dad was friends with Trump, so he got some interviews with Trump. They guy is not smart enough to take seriously.
Agreed…stopped watching him when he ripped Hegseth. NOT 100% on controller…chopper crew was TOO HIGH period.
A good controller would have realized that a plane landing on Rwy33 would be very low over the river and that the helo should be diverted. This controller acted like it was daytime VFR and it wasn’t. He is not a good controller for that airport and all of its complex problems.
This accident is 100% failure of ATC to perform its only mission – keep airplanes from running into each other. The real question is was it preventable? It’s hard to imagine that the controller would issue a clearance to the copter to cross the final approach course especially after instructing the arriving airliner to change runways. Then there is the automated collision alert systems. ATC radar sets have an alarm that sounds when there is a conflict. The jet liner has an anti-collision alert system that sounds when there is a conflict. The copter should have had a similar system. Pilots and controllers are a team and watch out for each others missteps.
Kelly is on my never watch list. I’ve seen him badly botch things often, such as SF politics, also opposing Hegseth. He’s a lightweight and certainly not conservative. He’s too confused to have a philosophy.
My son in law went to college at Embry-Riddle to become a ATC. He applied after graduation, but Obama froze the hiring of ATC’s. No one from my SIL’s class was hired, because of Obama changing things like hiring off the street. About three years ago (over 10 years from applying), they called my SIL about being a ATC, but by this time he has a better paying, less stressful job and said no thank you. This mess goes back to Obama.
It actually goes farther back then that. I was discriminated against as far back as 1975. In those days someone like me with 8 years mil experience, many being an instructor and controller were hired as gs-11’s and put through an advanced training program.
They canned that program because they said it discriminated from those who cant do what I did so they made me hire on as a gs-9 and go through the five year program non experienced people went through.
They also had a new program that people cam in as gs-7’s who would be your dei types and were put in a special primer program so they go up to the level of knowledge over time to become controllers. Thus this idea was hatched way back when and yes discriminated against white people with merits and experience.
Boeing did that too. Hows that working out for them?
not very well
DEI will get more people Killed . Thanks to The Democrat Party
Just wait until new “surgeons” hit the operating rooms.
Be a vegetarian except during dinner and lunch
When you pick a doctor for your surgery, you only see the picture and name.
Would you pick a doctor who belongs to a group that graduated with C- and because of DEI —or— pick the doctor who belongs to a very competitive group with due to DEI limited spaces were even with GPA 4.0 and A++?
In WW2 black pilots were some of the best in the air, specifically because they were forced to overcome discrimination. Now … opposite. Affirmative action has destroyed the competency of black Americans, creating justified discrimination once again.
Well, one thing we know for sure, the last four years the ATCs have been supervised on Biden’s watch, and for 12 of the last 16 years DEI has probably been a problem under the Democrats. Will we ever learn the real story?
This is the Result When They Hire Incompetent People Democrat DEI Hires that have the Skills for the Jobs
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