General Discussion

The jet plane requested a different runway right before landing, on approach to DCA.

Most of the time runway 1 is used. The busiest runway in the US.

The plane saw that runway 1 was in use so asked to use runway 33 which is not used as commonly and which seems to be an area mostly used for helicopter traffic etc.

Plane had to bank and circle to use newly requested runway, which means when the helo looked, he may have assumed plane was going to runway one as usual or helo pilot may have visually identified another landing plan since it is so congested. Pilot may have had his eye in the wrong plane, looked the wrong way, never saw the plane going to runway 33.

ATC had reassurance from the helo that the pilot had the plane in sight so ATC thought everything was okay until BAM.


Night goggles may have been used but because of all the lights, may have done more harm than good, if used.

The anti collision systems are normally turned off or muted on approach to the airport, because it would go ping ping ping constantly due to other planes and planes on the ground, making it impossible to hear ATC, etc. So when they get down below 400 feet and seconds from landing, which was the case in this tragedy, collision alerting would have been disabled, providing no help.

All of this is conjecture and the pilot says could be totally wrong but it seemed as plausible an explanation as any I have seen.

I hope someone else will provide a better summary in case I got it wrong or left something out.