Long-time readers know that I’ve been following the DCA crash since it happened, and have shared reports from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) when they came out. It caused some readers to get upset that I refused to place blame at the start, and said to let the process play out. Especially as there was plenty of blame to go around.
Six months ago, the NTSB issued a report with 75 findings and 50 safety recommendations. Turns out there was indeed plenty of blame to go around, a lot of it system failures that put the pilots into a situation where they had no chance.
Today, the Chair of the NTSB issued a statement regarding the lack of progress in those 50 mandatory recommendations being implemented. Partisan bickering in Congress has stalled some critical items, and rather than deal with that the Senate is going to go on yet another vacation.
There are some important and long-needed changes to systems underway, and frankly the Senate needs to sit down, work things out, and pass the necessary legislation. My thoughts on them not doing so are less than kind, to the point of being unprintable. We need to get things fixed to help ensure nothing like this happens again.
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there was plenty of blame to go around.
Of course there was. Because if the investigation had concluded with a single sensible recommendation: “Don’t put inadequately experienced individuals in charge of a helicopter in the vicinity of an international airport’s landing approach corridor for the purpose of increasing pilot diversity”, too many people with delicate sensibilities would have been offended. After all, 60 dead commercial aircraft passengers is a small price to pay in atonement for past discrimination.
Despite this getting flagged as spam, I am posting it as there is a lot of malicious ignorance like this out there. You clearly did not read the report and have been focused on one individual being solely to blame for some time if I’m remembering screen names correctly. Was a lot of that and it was hooey then and hooey now. I’ve explained more than once why this is wrong, and the report puts it out very plainly. The investigation found equipment problems with the altimeter system not just in the chopper in use, but in about half the choppers in the unit. Explains some of the altitude issues. Also, the IP is in charge and responsible — and was shown to have acted responsibly. There were issues with that corridor that were well outside the control of ANY of the pilots. Add in ATC failures, system issues/failures with avoidance, and other factors mean your pet bit of hate is not correct. I really think you need to lose it before it finishes eating you up. If you care to respond with facts and citations that prove the facts and citations in the report are wrong, bring them up. If all you have is hate, rage, ignorance, and bigotry, begone.