Trump: Impeach is the new Orange

[eny]

DEI is such a copout, it is their mask to their own incompetance. The idea they just employ anybody to fill a notional quota is ridiculous, people still have to be competent for the jobs, regardless of these programs. Lloyd Austin has an exemplary service and experience record and they replaced him with a philandering Fox weekend shill with scarce military experience in comparison. Jobs for the boys is why they go on about their DEI-op.


This is an example of the recklessness now a signature of FOTUS's regime:

https://archive.ph/c3W9F

[eny]

You got to laugh at this it is so serious: Delta Airlines (trump donator) lobbied for more flights at DCA, Turd Cruz pushed it through; Musk had a hissy fit with the FAA chief who was investigating SpaceX, so forced him to resign, add that to trump's decimation of TSA and Aviation Security Commitee, and you get a guy doing two jobs at the ATC, because they are desperately understaffed, and then the crash happens. It literally isn't rocket science as to who's to blame for this.

[Animalmother]

Didn't Regan gut several industries like this and closed most of the US mental hospitals? That was 40 years ago and the country is still trying to recover from it. The damage we're seeing in the space of just a few weeks is going to last generations.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see the rise of PMC's as the US military becomes a less attractive career opportunity for people and when Musk starts gutting it's budget. $800+ billion a year has got to be something he wants to dig into to.

[Raid]

I'd seen an interview an aviation expert gave about how the airspace around DC operates, and it sounds like military pilots have full control over their own course. ATC only advise them of potential hazards and the military flight crew should be directly observing any civilian traffic and avoiding it (known as "See and avoid") - the thought being that the aircraft will have far better visibility and reaction times than an ATC operator watching it through a radar screen. In the UK, civilian ATC completely controls the heading of military aircraft in that sort of airspace. The helicopter pilot had full authority, and they've already released the tapes of the civilian ATC giving the correct directions to the helicopter. Honestly it sounds like an accident waiting to happen, and that's the viewpoint of experts who have experience with Washington's airspace

So yes, not only is Trump exploiting a tragedy for politican gain, he's not even blaming the right organisation to begin with. I hope to god that ATC operator isn't dragged over the coals for this, because he's almost certainly suffering in his own head right now wondering if there was anything else he could have done.

[eny]

Apparently, there was a similar incident earlier this month involving a helicopter, so the warning signs were there, it just needed an incompetent malignant administration to break the camel's back.

[Raid]

it just needed an incompetent malignant administration to break the camel's back.

I can't see how Trump or his cabinet could have any responsibility for this either unless the Blackhawk was carrying Pete Hegseth's drinks order. It's a bad system that's been in place for many years.

[Animalmother]

It's like when Trump came to office during Covid. The health system was already fucked and it just took him to ensure it failed drastically and hundreds of thousands of people died.

[Raid]

Yes, but that was Trump being a belligerent, unthinking moron and just making up science on the spot. I can't see how he's influenced any part of this disaster unless his appointment for Secretary of Defence has been directly meddling in military flight operations.

[eny]

it just needed an incompetent malignant administration to break the camel's back.

I can't see how Trump or his cabinet could have any responsibility for this either unless the Blackhawk was carrying Pete Hegseth's drinks order. It's a bad system that's been in place for many years.

eh?

[Hatredsheart]

January 20: FAA director fired
January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years

[Animalmother]

January 20: FAA director fired
January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years

I see no connection there
Suppose they had better get used to shit just falling apart now.

[Raid]

January 20: FAA director fired
January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees
January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years

Which one of those resulted in a military pilot ignoring ATC warnings and managing to miss that he was directly in the flightpath of a landing civilian airliner? Again, the Blackhawk was not being controlled by ATC, ATC only have an advisory role to military aircraft in that area and the military pilot was allowed control over his own heading and altitude because that's how military aviation operates over Washington.

-The air traffic controller was giving him the correct traffic advisories, we've heard them.
-The Aviation safety advisory committee presumably weren't about to declare Washington airspace catastrophically unsafe, because it had been that way for many years.
-The military pilot wouldn't have been sent a retirement demand because the military were excluded from that scheme.

The civilian pilot was almost certainly in exactly the right spot because glide paths for runways are *heavily* controlled. If he was off-course at that point he would have crashed anyway, and the landing would have been aborted. This is the GPS trace from the incident:

PAT25, the Blackhawk, veers *towards* JIA5342, who is on a direct line to the giant, heavily illuminated runway immediately to PAT25's right. The Blackhawk pilot can't possibly have not known where he was, and there is only one path an airliner is going to take at that point. I can't see how this could be either the airline pilot or ATC's fault.

[Hatredsheart]

I stand corrected

[Raid]

I'll correct myself too, saying the military pilot ignored the traffic advisories was a slip of the finger, there's no evidence that he ignored them. That level of disorientation seems unlikely with such an enormously obvious landmark only a few hundred feet away that should have given him absolute certainly of where an airliner could be, but there could be any number of distractions we're not aware of.

[Wrathbone]

There's a new video which shows the Blackhawk apparently stationary (or moving slowly towards/from the camera, possibly) while the plane descends into it, which I think demonstrates at least that the plane's pilots wouldn't have been able to see it until the last second.



The Blackhawk was supposedly on a training exercise, which begs the question why was it anywhere near an approach glidepath for an international airport? I get that military aviation rules supercede civilian rules, but you can't just pootle about in restricted airspace like that. No idea what they were thinking.