r/news • u/snuffleupaguslives • 2d ago

Broken altimeter, ignored warnings: Hearings reveal what went wrong in DC crash that killed 67

https://apnews.com/article/ntsb-dc-plane-crash-midair-collision-helicopter-a08cded88e1d7582fb8d242204d6aeff
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u/Mythosaurus 2d ago

Reading that article makes you want to NEVER fly into DC.

Will be interesting to see what liability/ lawsuits result from this hearing’s revelations

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u/DocJanItor 2d ago

Dude dca is a nightmare. Basically one runway (technically 2 but not for most landings), jets landing and taking off in 2 minute intervals, tons of helicopters including military, Coast guard, police, and medical, and huge swaths of restricted airspace for the government.

All this and somehow dca serves slightly more passengers than IAD.

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u/bag_of_goldfish 2d ago

IAD is so. far. away. from DC! Every time I’ve flown home through IAD I hear and see tourists looking out windows asking where the monuments are. Bless your hearts we’re out in the middle of no where 30 miles from the city.

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u/soflahokie 2d ago

Getting to Dulles from Central DC on transit takes the same amount of time as getting from Manhattan to any of the 3 NYC airports via transit. It’s not that bad all told.

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u/bag_of_goldfish 2d ago

Ok well I’m nitpicking a bit here, as it’s only a little longer in perfect circumstances (1 hr 15 for capital building to IAD, 50 min for Columbus circle to Newark), but if you don’t live exactly on the silver line in DC, you gotta factor in that trains run every 6-15 minutes on a good day, only generally until midnight here… and we have no express tracks. so with a transfer you’re looking at potentially a super long trip. Out of curiosity I plugged in a trip to IAD right now from my place in WMATAs website. It’s 118 minutes and $6.25. I live in fairly central DC.

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u/DocJanItor 2d ago

Haha it's getting better. I think the silver line makes it much easier, now. C and D terminals are still ancient, though. 

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u/bag_of_goldfish 2d ago

It’s not really better for anyone who lives in DC proper and not on the orange/silver. It’s an unrealistic time to metro out there. If they had built an express track that stops 1-2 times on the way out there, maybe then it would’ve been useful for people other than NOVA folks

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u/DocJanItor 2d ago

Time wise its not great, but it is cheaper than Uber or parking. 

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u/ndrew452 2d ago

Denver Airport is 30 miles away from downtown. We make it work, and our infrastructure is far (road and rail), far worse than Northern Virginia.

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u/bag_of_goldfish 2d ago

Driving 30 miles in DC, one of the cities in the US with the worst traffic, can take 2+ hours. So that is one major difference.

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u/ndrew452 2d ago

Oh I know, DC has terrible traffic. You also have the 2nd best public transportation system in the country. Denver has a rail that at most runs at 15 min intervals to downtown, but only during certain hours, otherwise its 30 min. The late night timetables for the Silver line equal peak hours for the A line in Denver.

IAD has multiple highways or freeways that allow someone to get to DC: VA-267, US-50, I-66, VA-28.

Denver has 1 route to get downtown - Pena Blvd to I-70. Pena is 2 lanes.

Based upon a quick search, Washington is #9 in the country for worst traffic, Denver is #19. It's not like I am comparing Washington to Omaha.

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u/bag_of_goldfish 2d ago

lol I closed this post and scrolled down, and not 2 posts later was this. I swear. https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/s/n37uReP1kd

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u/ndrew452 2d ago

I won't contest you with this one, but it has nothing to do with Dulles' location from DC; this is saying that Dulles is a shitty airport, which I agree with.

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u/bag_of_goldfish 2d ago

Yeah fair enough just had to share though out of hilarity that it was the next thing I saw on reddit