Theory of Washington plane Crash

The departing flight was taking off from runway 1.. going north.. Deconflicted by a mile or more.

I think there was too much going at once for the lesbian girl boss to keep track of. But that's just like, my opinion, man.

Except the flight path of AA5342 was headed north up the river, not coming in from the east. It made a slight jog eastwards prior to the turn into runway 33 at which point it crossed the helo route. But the helo said it had the ac in sight and requested visual sep rules.

there was too much going at once

I think this is pretty accurate. The implication being that both ATC and the Blackhawk crew were at fault. How to correct this in the future? Fully man ATC, increase standards for both ATC and pilots, use clarity of speech and proactive commands such as telling UH-60 break left.

People will scoff, but even at slow speeds (like ships) a watch team can focus on the wrong object and miss another - especially with extensive background lighting at night… especially if there is confirmation bias (the warning is about the aircraft I already see).

😥

This seems plausible, but it would be good to have an explanation of why the helicopter was flying at too high an altitude, especially if there was a technical failure involved.

Air Traffic Control trusted the helicopter, but did they VERIFY that they were talking about the same thing? Seems like a little urgency and repetitive questioning was called for - would be curious to hear the full conversation…

There was not a single flight that took off head south in the hrs leading up to this crash. Flights where in a line just as this snapshot shows. Large aircraft landing on 1, the smaller landing on the one this flight was headed to This ✈️ also gained speed an altitude to avoid