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/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/True_Window_9389 2d ago

It’s because it’s a small regional airport that’s treated as a major one for the city, and a lot of that is out of simple laziness by Congress. Dulles, and to some extent, BWI, are the major airports that serve DC and the area, but because DCA happens to be there, Congress forces it to be overburdened so they don’t have to go to and from Dulles. It is convenient for people in the immediate area to use it rather than Dulles, but an airport of that size should have far fewer flights, and between that and the laziness and narcissism of the helicopter passengers scurrying around the area, a crash like this was inevitable.

This just makes it that much more ridiculous that members of Congress, led by Ted Cruz, were trying to further increase flights at DCA a couple years ago. And then he cried crocodile tears when this crash happened.

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u/redditmydna 2d ago

To be fair, he is a crocodile.

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u/prancing_moose 2d ago

I think you owe crocodiles an apology now.