There were a few new pieces of information from the daylong meeting of the NTSB to issue its findings and recommendations from the collision of a Black Hawk helicopter and CRJ700 at Reagan National Airport a year ago, but most of it has been thoroughly aired from congressional hearings, investigative reporting, and leaks from the sieve that is official Washington.
The most telling of the new tidbits was the fact that the FAA had already gone through a formal fact-finding process to determine that having helicopters pass 75 feet under airplanes on final approach was a bad idea. A working group was formed 13 years ago to suss out that bit of wisdom, but it was clearly filed for future reference. Nothing changed. It would appear a few things are changing as a result of last year’s horror, but with all the workarounds already being concocted it remains an open question whether the changes will actually amount to anything.
That’s because the fundamental dysfunction that governs the airspace at DCA will not change. Until both the federal government and the Army stop using it like a private airport, the pressures that are so eloquently described in the nascent NTSB report will never go away. Reagan National has too many competing interests vying for too little capacity, and when too many flying objects get stuffed into too small a box, they’re bound to run into each other.
As a public use airport, KDCA has too many flights. I doubt there is any airport of its size that has as many direct flights to as many second-tier fields as KDCA. That’s because the people who really call the shots want to get to and from their jobs in the Senate and House without having to connect. The American Eagle flight in the collision was on a direct flight from Wichita. Dulles could handle the traffic, but then the big shots would have to drive for 45 minutes to start their journey. KDCA is literally around the corner. Last year there was a protracted legislative spat over adding a couple of direct flights that the experts said were beyond the airport’s capabilities. They were approved.
KDCA would be stretched with commercial traffic alone but then you add the military. The airport is a short hop, by Black Hawk, to the Pentagon, and it would appear you don’t have to win an election to enjoy that kind of convenience. The FAA has done its best to clip the rotors of the high-flying generals and admirals who like the view from above KDCA on their way to work. But those senior officers are often accompanied by the elected officials and their senior staff who set the rules for the FAA, and then there’s the all-powerful security arguments. Remember the Black Hawk in the accident was on a proficiency check for a pilot who would be hauling around VIPs of various stripes, and the training flight was considered enough of a state secret that it warranted switching off the ADS-B Out.
The hand-wringing on display at the hearing won’t change the fundamental facts of the circumstances at KDCA. Too many aircraft of varying capabilities and missions will inevitably be in conflict. The NTSB’s fight isn’t just with the FAA.
Yep, that’s it in a nut shell…
In this part of the world, travel times vary. Dulles to Reagan can be covered in the 45 minutes you quoted, or much longer, especially if you’re penetrating into DC or points East. Politicians and the hurried may be too inconvenienced by the trip, so they worship at the altar of convenience and take their chances. Others simply say no and budget the time required to choose IAD. DCA should have been closed and its land repurposed for much-needed housing after 9/11.
Don’t forget, BWI, Baltimore Washington airport is also available.
The notion by many that the FAA is an independent agency is a complete fallacy. There is never a NPRM – not a single one – that is published without state and mostly federal non-aviation safety related input and extreme influence. It is a micro-managed agency by Congress that tells the agency not just what needs to be done, but also how to do it and/or not do it. From funding to personnel to back-scratching lobbying, primary blame lies with the politics on Capitol Hill, not the puppet agency.
The real problem comes down to General and Flag Officers using these “training” flights as VIP transport. There’s a reason they don’t want ADS-B on and it has nothing to do with National Security and everything to do with not showing up on ProPublica.
It appears to me that the public broadcasting of ADSB aircraft information is the root of problem with ADSB all the way around!
The Armed Forces don’t want the public to know where and when they are flying.
High powered bureaucrat and elected officials don’t want their flying whereabouts broadcast publicly.
We the General Aviation public do NOT want our whereabouts and private information publicly broadcast.
So the solution appears to be incredibly simple , Having the ownership information from ADSB only available to Air Traffic Control ,the FAA and law enforcement agencies and then only with a warrant issued by a court of appropriate jurisdiction ( not an administrative kangaroo Court) . With the publicly broadcast ADSB information being simply that an aircraft is flying in this particular 3 dimensional location currently is all that the public needs to know, and frankly I don’t think they truly need to know that.
Bottom line, if the ADSB information was NOT public and only used for its original purpose of safety and efficiency of flight I don’t think anyone would turn it off or chose not to equip !
As long as I can see information like altitude, ground speed, and heading of other aircraft on my EFB, I really don’t need all the other information that ADS-B encodes. Still, I do wonder how all the information that ADS-B encodes could be stripped from some receivers and not from others.
When Jay Rockefeller started pushing the ADSB agenda 25 years ago, I saw that it was just another attempt to track everybody, everywhere they go. When your refrigerator, IPad, cell phone, and every other smart appliance in your house knows your finger prints, facial recognition, voice recognition and retina scan for verification, there is no privacy anymore. Not even in your own bathroom. And it is all being sold to the highest bidder. That why your auto insurance goes up when you haven’t even gotten a ticket or had a wreck. You are being watched when you pull up to a stop light and look at your cell phone, when you drive down the highway or even walk out in a field without any electronics. Next thing Palantir has in store is predictive crime prevention when a computer decides you are guilty based on your beliefs and attitudes about things, even though you have done nothing illegal or committed any crime. All you have to do is disagree with the algorithms, public opinion or news media group think and you are considered guilty.
Well written Russ!
Having flown in and out of DCA as an airline pilot since the mid 1990s I can only compare it to Gomez Addams train set in his basement, except that collision was always narrowly avoided.
Until it wasn’t.
But DCA has always been jammed beyond capacity, even to the point of operating STOL aircraft off a stub runway in the 70s and 80s.
One solution may be to take it down to a single runway. And get rid of the bizarre security nightmare of a city park at the end of the runway!
In the late 70s when I was with a major airline, we always stopped in Nashville on a flight between Dallas and DCA. The reason at the time was that DCA limited inbound flights to some radius around DCA. Dallas was too far so we had to make a stop. Has that changed? Can you now fly from, say, LAX to DCA nonstop? That would certainly increase the congestion.
The history of the perimeter rule is one of congress nearly constantly increasing it or granting exceptions.
https://enotrans.org/article/a-history-of-the-perimeter-rule-at-washington-reagan-national-airport/
It was first set at 650 miles as a voluntary agreement in 1966, with 7 existing routes up to 1000 miles grandfathered.
In the late 70s for various reasons traffic began to Dulles plummet. For this and other reasons in 1981 the rule was codified in regulation at 1000 miles.
In 1986 the perimeter was extended to 1250 miles to allow nonstop flights to Houston and Dallas.
In 2000 12 slots are created allowing 6 round trip outside the perimeter flights.
In 2004 12 more outside the perimeter slots are added.
2012 8 more outside the perimeter slots added for new carriers, and 4 existing carriers are allowed to convert 2 slots (one round trip) each of their inside the perimeter flights to outside the perimeter flights.
Thumbs up for the very apt Addams analogy. Could make a nifty political cartoon…
I haven’t flown into Washington National since its name was changed.
Even before that I preferred the far better designed Dulles, both as a pilot and as pax. Like La Guardia with its short intersecting runways, it’s a facility that worked fine when it was built for Trimotors and DC-2s, but has been rendered obsolete by clouds of high speed jets and constrained geography.
The 75 foot separation between helo and jet traffic was an insane policy.
(Edited to remove irrelevant content)
I get enough politics without coming here to read your opinion about something not related to the article. Lets keep this about flying and not your personal podium for venting
Spot on, Russ.
They do take pretty good care of themselves. The DC Metro subway is as nice as they come. Hubris leads to nemesis which is why they are in such a pickle. How do they get away with 75 feet when standard IFR separation is 3 nm H and 1000 feet V?
75 feet under a descending aircraft! The Terpsters must be in fits!
From the beginning, congress has been the culprit in problems at DCA, not the FAA. Each congressman demands flights between dca & their home district. Congress has spun off the management of the airport to shift blame, but keep several hooks in the process of allocating flights & gates. Here is some of their recent work: Congress repeatedly adds flights despite congestion objections:
Total: 44 daily beyond-perimeter slots created by Congress, not FAA.
Effect: Congress expands National’s reach while keeping Dulles protected.
the FAA has been taking a beating when they are merely the cart in this scenario, doing the best they can within the limits they are given.
Rick has the “flick” …. the FAA knows/knew that it was not a “good plan”. Watching from the outside I could tell it was an “incident” waiting to happen and I’m happy that Rick has the background on the beyond perimeter exemptions that were included as amendments on totally unrelated – apparently “must-pass” acts. Good on you Rick. Thanks.
I still don’t understand what kind of training in the continental United States requires ADS-B out to be turned off.
I could see it with tactical fighter operations and the like, when conducted in remote training areas; that could give away performance and tactics. In that case, turn it off when you enter the practice area, and back on when finished and heading back home. But there’s no reason to turn it off on routine proficiency flights, especially through Bravo airspace…
Isn’t the safest way to cross an airport at midfield and appropriate altitude. I was once on a ride in the Fuji blimp and we crossed LAX midfield at 1000AGL. Is there a reason the helicopters can’t do that?
Additionally, congress isn’t the only culprit. The DCA controlled airspace is profoundly chaotic. Nearly every federal agency has its own executive transportation air fleet. Every LEO had its own helicopter fleet. Add in air ambulances & the large number of first classs hospitals under the dome & it’s clear the military are far from the only problem.
I’m flabbergasted how everyone keeps getting this wrong, including the Chairwoman of the NTSB.
I’ll start with a few questions. Don’t Jetways cross with other Jetways? Yes. Why don’t we have mid-air collisions daily? Because the aircraft operating in that airspace ( Class A) are under positive control. Are aircraft operating in Class B under positive control? Yes.
The helicopter routes are cartoons not airways. They provide a structure and organization for helicopters to transit through a Class B surface area. Imagine these helicopters showing up on any radial from the DCA VOR and asking to proceed through the Bravo in random ways. The work load for controllers would be enormous. Listen to and read the testimony of FAA and ATC personnel especially in response to questions about PAT 23 being toward the middle of the river vice the river bank. There is no defined lateral boundaries to the route. The chart is representative of where helicopters should transit. That alone undermines this premise that there was intent in the design of the route was to only have 75’ of separation. Where are you assuming the passing helicopter is on the route, leftish, centerish, rightish changes the geometry and the distance. If they are far right, conceivably they could pass above the landing aircraft.
The answer is – the helicopter and landing aircraft are under positive control because they are operating in the surface area of a Class Bravo. The aircraft had landing clearance long before the runway was clear. If things change, tower can rescind that clearance and even instruct the aircraft to go around. So one option when the collision alarm went off on the tower CAB was to direct Bluestreak to go around.
The real causal factor was PAT23 called the CRJ “in sight, request visual separation.” This sort of thing happens multiple times a day at every major airport in the US. It sounds like this, “United 123 do you have the proceeding traffic (or the airfield) in sight?”. “In sight” “Keep the traffic in sight, cleared for the visual runway 28.” It is now United’s responsibility for collision avoidance and maintaining a safe interval. So PAT 23 took on that responsibility. The problem is the helicopter controller in the tower never revisited their progress and plan to keep themselves separate. That doesn’t always go well. Go look at the recent near mid-air between a helicopter and Southwest in Cleveland. The helicopter’s plan was to pass in front of and over a landing airliner that was traveling probably 50 knots faster than.
Furthermore, if you read the interviews with the Army helicopter pilots who operate those flights, there’s a common theme. When heading south, they are usually told to hold at Hains Point. When northbound, they’re told to hold at the “golf balls.”. They hold until cleared through that section of the route. This is DCA tower executing positive control over the helicopter.
Many admit to not understanding why they’re told to hold, they just comply. They understand now. Here is a great and illuminating interview. This retired Army pilot says despite operating in that airspace for years, he never once saw an aircraft land on RWY 33. Why? Because he was too busy holding.
https://youtu.be/lJmvyEEIkEM?si=kDftbetLJDr7M8Q1
In summary, PAT23 called traffic in sight and asked to be responsible for their own separation from the CRJ. That was granted. I would guess that the pilo assumed the CRJ would be clear before they were passing through the approach to 33. When they were not held at Hains Point, that validated his assumption. Considering their course, a right crosswind requiring a crab, trying to find an aircraft on NVGs coming out of a backlit hill, he didn’t see the aircraft until the last second and had probably never determined which of the distant green dots was their traffic to avoid when he initially called in sight.
“Well we had 75 feet clearance,” sounds comforting until you look at what that number really is: it is a best case geometry gap, not a protected margin, and it lives right inside normal error sources and the wake problem zone. The FAA’s own guidance says if your altimeter is off by plus or minus 75 feet from known field elevation on a ground check, the instrument is “questionable,” which tells you how skinny that number is to begin with. Then there is this; Route 4 corridor was a two-way track.
Excellent reporting, Russ!