We have been glued to the news watching the reporting about the plane and helicopter collision in DC. So unbelievably sad and scary. Praying for all the families of the victims.
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Page on the subject:
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Oh gosh. 
My son and his wife live in NW DC. They’ve flown out of DCA many times Very scary and sad.
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A pilot at my former company who used to fly Blackhawks posted that they don’t have TCAS (traffic collision and avoidance system). Apparently the ATC tape is available, and the conversation is, “PAT 25 do you have the CRJ in sight? Pass behind the CRJ.” This is followed by a landing clearance and then you hear people in the tower scream, and say “oh”!
I vividly remember a time we almost collided with a helicopter at Burbank. They fly VFR, cross right through your approach path low to the ground and are hard to see. Burbank cannot handle the volume of traffic in that area. I wonder if DCA is the same way. This is terrible, I’m going to stop watching this horror. God help these poor people and their families.
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I live in the DC area and have been watching local news all evening. They are currently saying the plane broke into two pieces and is sitting in 7’ of water. The helicopter is upside down and currently they are unable to access it.
Lots of chatter on local social media from people listening to police scanners. The helicopter supposedly had three people on board and came from Ft. Belvoir (south of the airport on VA side of Potomac).
Tragic, heartbreaking night.
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My DIL flew out of there this afternoon. Thinking of all the affected families. 
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Just a horrible tragedy.
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According to Reddit, DCA has too much traffic and complex issues. They said a bill was introduced to either increase or decrease the volume of traffic (I can’t remember which) and VA and MD were the only ones voting for less traffic.
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The few times I’ve been there have been in the dead of night, so I don’t remember traffic issues, but yeah, I can see it being very busy airspace during the day. I can’t imagine the bill would be to increase traffic, if it’s already crowded. Some places just have too much traffic, and I’m surprised that midair collisions don’t happen more often. The “big sky theory” won’t work so well when there’s just too many airplanes aloft.
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What I heard was the bill was to increase traffic (at the presser just now, the Kansas senator said that this particular flight was added just last year). A talking head/analyst type said that DCA has some crazy amount of traffic. I don’t remember the specific stat.
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I think some of what I’ve been reading about survivors is fake news. I hope someone made it through this alive, but that would be a miracle.
Younger S was playing in at soccer game that started at 9:30pm literally adjacent to Reagan. It was a tense period before we heard from him. Happy for us, but such a horrible tragedy.
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It was to increase traffic.
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There were skaters, coaches, and families with US Figure Skating onboard. They were returning from a development camp. This is so terrible. Thinking of all the passengers and their family members.
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Very tragicđź’”
I feel so terrible for everyone affected by this.
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Just curious, why is a Blackhawk helicopter flying around a busy airport in heavy air traffic? I’m sure there was a reason…maybe not very smart, but a reason.
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I read that DCA is popular with members of congress who fly often back to their home district. It’s closer than the other airport. That there was a lot of pressure to offer flights to their home districts.
So this reauthorization passed in the House feels a bit self serving.
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I was home in Alexandria, VA in January 1982 when a flight taking off from National Airport hit the 14th Street Bridge and plunged into the Potomac. When I heard this story last night it immediately brought back memories of that incident - I was home from college over winter break and hadn’t headed back yet. I could step outside my home and hear sirens and emergency responders.
I don’t live in Virginia any longer, but I did live in Kansas for several years, and had friends who went to the Figure Skating Championships in Wichita last week.
Such a tragedy.
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There is a great deal of helicopter traffic at DCA. With that said it is really busy airspace in that area, tons of airports/military areas/landing strips in the relatively near vicinity. Hopefully time will tell where the mistake happened.
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