Broceephus anon-x8p1
5 hours ago
There were over 1200 plane crashes in the US in 2023. Most don’t make national news unless there are more than 2 casualties. Unfortunately, it literally happens every day.

anon-545z Broceephus
4 hours ago
Non were commercial aircraft. There hasn’t been a commercial crash in the US since 2009. Also, 1017 of those crashes were non fatal. The remainder never saw anywhere close to the loss of life we have seen the past two days. Yes, you are right, if there is not more than 1 or 2 deaths, it is not reported. Also we rarely see a crash in a metro area.

For one, just as I speculated, the Black Hawk was in a nose-low attitude, which you can see based on where it's rotor beacon is in relation to the lights on the first of the helicopter. That means their upward visibility was very limited. If they were wearing night-vision goggles, which were reported by the Department of Defense as being on board, it would have been even more so. That's the first major issue.

Secondly, while some keep referencing how bright the landing lights were, those would not be very visible to an aircraft approaching from the side, as the Black Hawk was. That's especially true on a clear, dry night where there's not much moisture in the air for the lights to project on and reflect back. There is also an enormous amount of light pollution in the background for beacons and strobes to get lost in.

Thirdly, and perhaps most telling, is that the regional jet was descending on the final approach path after making its base-to-final turn while the Black Hawk seemed to be in a slight climb (according to the track data). That means the two aircraft were not at the same altitude until the moment of impact. In other words, the regional jet essentially descended into the flight path of the helicopter, with the latter's crew having little to no upward visibility.

As a point of clarity, the regional jet was where it was supposed to be. The Black Hawk's flight path was the issue, and it never should have been where it was. Further, given that the helicopter appeared to have called the wrong traffic in sight when warned by air traffic control, it's also very possible they were distracted and not even looking in the direction when the collision occurred.

The last question (one President Donald Trump himself has raised) revolves around why the Black Hawk was at the wrong altitude, and there are several possible explanations. You can gain a hundred or so feet of altitude in an aircraft in the blink of an eye. That could happen due to a lack of proficiency. It could also happen due to being distracted.

Staffing at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” according to an internal preliminary Federal Aviation Administration safety report about the collision that was reviewed by The New York Times.

The controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways. Those jobs typically are assigned to two controllers, rather than one.

...

The tower [at Reagan] was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels. The targets set by the F.A.A. and the controllers’ union call for 30. //

This shocking event follows problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden Administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Obama Administration implemented a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude. During my first term, my Administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence. But the Biden Administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous "diversity equity and inclusion" tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with "severe intellectual" disabilities in the FAA.

On my second day in office, I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard. Yesterday's devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA.

In aviation, “retard” is a command to reduce the throttle position. It is used throughout the industry but is especially noteworthy in Airbus aircraft. These highly-automated planes make aural callouts based on the aircraft’s radar altitude, including one telling the pilot to retard the thrust levers on their final approach to landing.

When first heard from the jump seat or in a simulator, the Airbus call out of “50…40…30…20…RETARD, RETARD” can sound a bit odd. Numerous jokes have popped up. After all, who would want to fly a plane that insults its pilot?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the verb retard as “to delay or impede the development or progress of…to slow up, especially by preventing or hindering advance or accomplishment. For example, chemicals are used to retard the spread of fire.”

In the example of an aircraft, the thrust levers are moved aft to retard the power produced by the engines.

Is there an ATC shortage? Yes, there is, and we'll get to that. Was it caused by any action of the Trump administration instituted eight days ago? There's no planet on which that's true. You don't train to be an air traffic controller in eight days, much less would you be assigned to what is one of the most senior sectors in the country.

But if Democrats want to go down this road, we can. What caused the current ATC shortage? The Biden administration, which took its cues from diversity programs created by the Obama administration, rejected over 3,000 qualified applicants who didn't meet DEI standards. How do we know this? Because it led to a major class action lawsuit that is still ongoing. //

In other words, Democrat presidents put DEI above safety, purging thousands of people who could have solved the shortage because their skin color didn't match up with the left's political wants. That's what the Trump administration is trying to fix by eliminating diversity quotas at the FAA. So again, if Democrats would like to go down this road of trying to place blame, Republicans should be happy to do so. It won't work out well for the former.

With that said, it does not appear that ATC was primarily at fault here. There may be questions about how much separation was allowed to begin with, and an investigation will figure all that out. In the meantime, these attempts to blame a presidential administration that's been in office for eight days are laughable. Not only that, they are ghoulish and disgusting.

DCA JIA5342 & PAT25 mid air

DOT should certainly enforce refunds for services charged but not provided. But they shouldn’t lock airlines and airfare search sites into displaying specific charges in a standardized way, the same everywhere. We should be encouraging competition in meeting consumer needs, not making airline sites and Expedia displays the same forever. It’s not only seat and bag fees that matter – and even those don’t always matter!

United has received its 1,000th mainline jet, claiming the title of the world’s largest mainline fleet. The aircraft ‒ a 737 MAX 9 with registration N77584 ‒ was delivered by Boeing on Monday.

With this latest delivery, the Chicago-based carrier not only has 1,000 aircraft in its mainline fleet but also has the most airplanes of any airline globally. Data from aviation analytics company Cirium shows that United took delivery of 57 total aircraft last year. //

The airline now trumps the mainline fleets of both Delta and American, which were the previous titleholders. According to planespotters.net data, Delta has 985 aircraft, while American has 978.

Today’s ETOPS certifications allow US carriers to fly to Hawaii from the mainland United States using narrowbody aircraft. However, these planes must be specifically certified for the operation to be permitted. Unfortunately, a scheduling mistake from American Airlines once resulted in a non-ETOPS-certified Airbus A321 traveling to the Hawaiian Islands from the US West Coast. //

ETOPS stands for Extended-Range Twin-Engine Operations Performance Standards, though some in the industry humorously refer to it as 'engines turn or passengers swim.' Its foundation stretches back to when piston-powered aircraft were widespread in the commercial aviation market. These engines were unreliable, so traveling too far from a diversion airport could have serious and deadly consequences for those onboard.

In response, the Federal Aviation Administration created its 60-minute rule. This regulation stated that any aircraft with two or fewer engines could not fly more than one hour from a diversion airport. //

As a result of modernized airline fleets, the FAA adjusted its standards for long-distance, over-water flying. It started by issuing certifications for individual twinjet aircraft to fly long-haul flights that extended up to 120 minutes from the nearest diversion airport. This regulation became known as ETOPS 120. Among the first to receive these ratings were the Boeing 767-200ER and Airbus A300. //

services to Hawaii were still required to be operated by aircraft with an ETOPS 180 certification, which is slightly higher than the 120-minute rule established for other operations. //

In 1995, the new Boeing 777 became the first twinjet to receive ETOPS 180 certification. In 1999, a major change occurred when the Next Generation Boeing 737 family received an ETOPS 180 rating. The Airbus A320 family followed suit in 2004. //

American operated its Airbus A321 on several routes to the islands from the US West Coast. These A321s were a mixed fleet, as some had the ETOPS 180 certification, while others were not approved to cross vast distances without a nearby diversion airport.

According to ch-aviation, on August 31, 2015, American Airlines flight AA31 was mistakenly operated by a non-ETOPS-certified Airbus A321. The service departed Los Angeles International Airport and was bound for Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii. The mistake reportedly occurred 12 days after the A321 was first deployed on the route.

An employee discovered that the aircraft involved, N137AA, was not ETOPS-certified while the aircraft was in flight. They notified American Airlines management, which then informed the FAA of the problem. Despite the mistake, the A321 touched down in Hawaii uneventfully but was ferried back to the mainland without passengers. //

There are minimal differences between a non-ETOPS-certified and ETOPS-certified A321, the latter simply having auxiliary fuel tanks to extend range in the event of a diversion. Additionally, extra medical equipment and fire suppression tools must be onboard and accessible to the crew.

The upper stage, meanwhile, appeared to fly normally until a telemetry display on SpaceX's webcast indicated that one of the ship's six engines shut off more than seven minutes after liftoff. The display then showed more engines failing, and the data stream froze.

In an update posted on SpaceX's website later Thursday evening, officials said ground teams lost contact with the spacecraft approximately eight and a half minutes into the flight. At the time, information on SpaceX's live video stream showed the vehicle was traveling at about 13,246 mph (21,317 km/hr) at an altitude of about 91 miles (146 kilometers).

"Initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly with debris falling into the Atlantic Ocean within the predefined hazard areas," SpaceX officials wrote in the update.

The falling debris caused air traffic controllers to divert or reroute commercial flights over the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Air traffic controllers have the ability to activate a "Debris Response Area" if a spacecraft experiences an anomaly with debris falling outside of identified closed aircraft hazard areas, where the FAA notifies pilots in advance about the risk of reentering space junk. Activating a Debris Response Area "allows the FAA to direct aircraft to exit the area and prevent others from entering," the statement read.

This is what the FAA did Thursday evening. Air traffic controllers closed a swath of airspace between the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico to commercial air traffic for more than an hour, causing some passenger airline flights to enter a holding pattern, return to their departure airports, land at alternate airfields, or delay their takeoffs.

Minister of War
12 hours ago edited
Regardless of whether or not this is just a headfake by the Communist Chinese, China is going to dominate the future development of military equipment & technologies unless we get our shit together soon. And there are three primary reasons for that:

1) There are far more Chinese students focusing their university studies on math, science, engineering and technology than American students. With so many American students focusing their university studies on social sciences & other mostly pointless & BS majors, even American universities are training far more students from China & India in key STEM subjects than they are training Americans. American children today dream of being the next big star of Communist China's TikTok app far more often than they dream of actually building or inventing something. How can we expect to keep up with the Communist Chinese when China is training so many more of their young people than we are in these key fields?

2) The espionage program of the Communist Chinese has become vastly superior to ours. This problem is heavily related to DEI & wokeness in our intelligence services when Communist China doesn't have to worry about that at all. If the best American spy happens to be a white guy, this wouldn't be much help in Communist China because he'll stick out like a sore thumb. But if the Communist Chinese send Chinese nationals to do spy work in the US for them, Americans are forbidden from noticing that the Chinese national looks a lot like a Chinese person & might require additional vetting before being granted a top secret security clearance. The same garbage in America that required that a grandma from Kansas goes through the same TSA vetting process as a single male who appears to be of Middle Eastern descent also requires that we waste a ton of time & money that should be focused on more likely targets when it comes to Communist Chinese spying. The Communist Chinese Ministry of State Security has basically decimated our human intelligence gathering operations in China while we appear to be clueless about the great majority of Communist China's operations in the US or around the world until it is too late in the best case scenario. There is no surprise that at least one of the Chinese Gen 6 fighters bears so much resemblance to our own F-35 since Communist Chinese spying resulted in all specs for the F-35 being stolen by them. Imagine they same white guy American spy being able to steal such info from the Communist Chinese. It ain't gonna happen.

3) We continue to be our own worst enemies since we are the ones paying for Communist China's military buildup & military technology development programs. And this goes far beyond direct payments to develop their next weapons, as was the case with the Communist Chinese asset Anthony Fauci & his use of direct American taxpayer financial assistance to develop the Communist Chinese Military's Wuhan Bioweapon that killed millions, made hundreds of millions more very sick & brought the economies of the world to their knees. Our indirect funding of the Communist Chinese massive military buildup & weapons development programs comes through our enormous international trade imbalance. A not insignificant portion of any of the trade profits going to Chinese companies also goes to fund what has been the most massive "peacetime" military buildup & development program in human history. If we don't begin a serious initiative to completely decouple our economy from the economy of the Communist Chinese Party, then we will continue to be the ones digging our own graves.

China has unveiled two new so-called sixth-generation fighter aircraft designed to demonstrate technological prowess and overawe its potential adversaries, but which could be much less. //

China's two major military aircraft manufacturers rolling out prototypes of what is alleged to be the first flyable models of a new-generation fighter aircraft certainly screams "public relations gimmick." At this stage, no one has had a chance to examine the aircraft, so everything we read about it is speculative. Are they real, or are they supposed to create an aura of technological superiority?

We've seen one version of this picture before. The Soviet MiG-25 first appeared at the 50th October Revolution Airshow on July 9, 1967 at Domodedovo airport. It was unexpected, and it was the star.

US intelligence panicked and our defense industry set about designing an aircraft that could overmatch the MiG-25.

Fast-forward to September 6, 1976, when Lieutenant Viktor Belenko defected to the West by landing his MiG-25 fighter at Hakodate Airport in Hokkaido, Japan. When Western engineers examined the airplane, they discovered it was crudely made and designed for high speeds.

The tear-down revealed that the braggart was a toothless phony, too heavy to be maneuverable at low altitudes, limited in what it could accomplish up high, and with little range and no midair refueling capability. When later compared to the U.S. teen-series fighters, the F-15, -16 and -18, it was powerless, particularly because the Foxbat had a max-G rating of 4.5, and just 2.2 with full fuel. Excess Gs would rip its half-ton air-to-air missiles from their underwing hardpoints, since the airplane was intended to go fast but in a straight line. //

Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen
·
China is building a drone army in preparation for America's "Pivot to Asia" and "Global NATO"

• Yes, this swarm technology also has civilisation application, although it will also be part of its military

Last edited
7:40 AM · Nov 24, 2024

Elon Musk @elonmusk
·
Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35 🗑️ 🫠

1:41 AM · Nov 24, 2024. //

You have to ask yourself why China, the owner of the above "drone swarm," is sinking billions of dollars into developing a manned fighter if they believe the drone is the future of warfare. You also have to ask why a continental power like China is investing in a heavy stealth fighter "with long endurance and comparatively massive internal volume to accommodate a very large fuel load, as well as weapons and sensors" for a future battlefield that we are told will be dominated by drones and hypersonic missiles — unless the new fighters are a head fake designed to catch our attention and divert resources to countering them.

At this point, these aircraft are what the late Don Rumsfeld would call "known unknowns." We know these planes exist, but we have no idea what they mean. What we can count on is defense contractors trying to divert as many Pentagon resources as possible into developing an aircraft that can overmatch these two Chinese planes without having any idea of their capability. //

anon-vwl5
7 hours ago
A long range fighter and a drone swarm are answers to two different tactical problems. //

RedLegADC(M)
16 hours ago
Usually we are tracking, but I'll take some small exception to your conclusion. First of all, the F-15 was not developed simply as a response to the Mig-25 - I suspect you actually know that as well as I do. Secondly, while it is always a cheap but wildly applauded diversion to criticize the greedy defense industry, I would hope you are not saying it was a mistake to develop and deploy the F-15, or that the defense industry and services should ignore emerging threats. //

Random US Citizen
16 hours ago edited
Meh. Call me back when China starts doing air operations from carriers at night, or launching nuclear-powered submarines that don’t sink while docked. I’m not saying their military is a paper tiger in the way that Russia’s obviously is, because quantity has a quality all its own. We know that from the human-wave attacks in Korea.

But we also know that China is on its way over a demographic cliff, that their economy is wallpaper covering up the cracks in the wallpaper covering cracks in the wallpaper, and that their culture of “face” means QC is, at very best, a distant afterthought.

China is an adversary with a zillion-man army, which is a threat to its near neighbors, but there’s no reason to freak out over plywood prototypes shaped as if they were stealthy.

Christmas Day, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight JS-8243 crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Aqtau Airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan. There were 67 passengers and crew aboard; at least 38 died in the crash, and the body count may climb as hospitalized passengers succumb to their injuries. Russian aviation authorities blamed the loss on a massive bird strike, but the intact tail section bore the tell-tale marks of a hit by a missile fired from an SA-22 Greyhound (Russian name: Pantsir) surface-to-air missile system. Read the background in my post: Azerbaijan Airline Crash Was Most Likely Caused by a Russian Missile.

Despite warnings from the Kremlin not to speculate on the cause of the crash, Azerbaijani officials have told the media Flight JS-8243 was brought down by a Russian missile. //

It was the drone attack, not fog, that prevented JS-8243 from landing.

Near Grozny, the plane was hit by a Russian missile. The plane asked to divert to airports at Makhachkala or Mineralnye Vody, but permission was denied, and it was told to land at Aqtau Airport. Essentially, it was forbidden to land in Russian territory. As the plane left the Grozny area, it was subjected to GPS jamming and other electronic warfare effects. "According to data, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path above the sea."

By now, the plane had lost steering, and the pilot and co-pilot were managing direction and altitude by using engine power. This is what the flight looked like with altitude changes. //

By any standard, the flight crew on JS-8243 were heroic. By keeping the fatally damaged aircraft in the air and accomplishing a controlled crash near the Aqtau Airport, they saved nearly half the people on board. //

flyovercountry
11 hours ago
It needs to be said over and over, the reason why the Russians denied landing anywhere except Kazakhstan is the hope the airplane, and evidence, would be at the bottom of the Caspian Sea.

Four backcountry airstrips in Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness known as the “Big Creek Four” have been deemed emergency use only as outlined by a recent legal settlement.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit between environmental groups and the U.S. Forest Service, with the State of Idaho intervening on behalf of recreational aviators. In its complaint, environmental advocates have stated that aircraft use of the Big Creek Four is damaging wilderness character, wildlife habitats and the area's legally protected solitude.

The recent ruling notes that the airstrips will remain technically open for emergencies, but recreational access will be prohibited, with both usage and maintenance subject to monitoring—a major setback for recreational flyers. //

bbgun06
A grass strip that is not used recreationally won’t be maintained for emergency use.
I’d hate for a pilot experiencing an emergency to die after attempting a landing there.

scarlson
This is exactly correct. I know many pilots who help maintain back country strips in Idaho and Montana. Pilots are the least impactful on the environment and what exactly is “damaging the wildlife character”? //

jbmcnamee
I would hope that the NPS also banned surface vehicles with ICE motivators, such as four-wheelers, motorcycles, AWD pickups, etc, or this whole thing is pretty much a sham. Ground vehicles do far more damage to the environment that an airplane does. Airplanes don’t leave trails and ruts in the forest, run over animals, possibly spark fires from poorly maintained exhaust pipes or overheated catalytic converters. Pilots rarely leave their trash behind, throw beer bottles and cans in the brush or use the trees and animals as target practice with the gun they brought along “just for fun”. In fact, if you were to ask park rangers what their biggest problems are for keeping the parks “pristine”, i doubt that pilots and airplanes even make the top ten. //

Slipstream
New backcountry rules from people who never leave the city.

Over 7-8 December, much of Flightradar24’s most tracked flights list was occupied by flights to, from, or near Syria as rebels entered Damascus and news spread that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad had been deposed. With the Russian government announcing it had granted Assad and his family asylum and they were in Moscow, we began to ponder Assad’s possible paths to Russia.

The following options present to us the most likely scenarios, though there are certainly multiple variables that leave open the possibility of additional options.

In an internal American Airlines Jetwire for employees, the company shared what happened to a group of school children visiting Washington, D.C. from Bermuda on June 15th.

Seventy one students and their chaperones had flown non-stop to Washington’s National airport on American. They were ticketed on a connecting flight back through Miami, and their DC to Miami segment was delayed by weather. They were going to miss their connection home. //

So American Airlines decided to add a dedicated flight just for this school trip. //
Since National airport is an American Airlines hub, and crew base, they were able to pick up crew that were on reserve to work the trip. They used a 128-seat Airbus A319 dedicated to the group. //

This was an even more expensive move that American made for these passengers than it seems at first glance. That’s because they didn’t just have to fly an extra plane to Bermuda – they had to get it back, too. They didn’t need to operate an extra Bermuda departure that day. So American paid to ferry the plane back to National airport, too.

The curtains are beginning to close for the A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka Warthog). The United States Air Force is set to retire 56 in fiscal year 2025 (around 20% of the remaining inventory), reducing the number of A-10s in active service to around 200. Meanwhile, the US Air Force has stated it is about to retire the last of its Warthogs based in South Korea, and these will be replaced by F-16 Fighting Falcons (upgraded with fifth-generation-like software).

Emails and tool-tracking software weren't heeded, but nothing scary happened - except to the nylon tool

Have you ever looked up at an aircraft and wanted to know exactly what type of plane it was? Having already taken a look at the key Airbus and Boeing differences, we explore the important features for identifying the wide array of aircraft in the Boeing long-haul fleet.

Gone are the glory days of the Boeing 747, the 'Queen of the Skies'. The first commercial double-decker aircraft flew in 1969, and though several are still flying today, only a few airlines operate the type on commercial passenger flights. According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, there are only four airlines operating 747s this month: Air China, Korean Air, Lufthansa, and Aeroflot. //

In October 2014, 33 airlines operated 747 passenger flights, and British Airways (BA) had the most. Ten years ago, 12,171 747 flights were scheduled worldwide, more than 2,000 of which were operated by BA. More than half of BA's 747 flights were to and from the United States (US). //

Data shows that in October 2014, 1,112 flights were scheduled to and from the US on BA 747s. This included 11 cities and more than 350,000 seats. It should come as no surprise that the busiest 747 route was from Heathrow to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York. Ten years ago, there were 215 flights scheduled in each direction to JFK on 747s, up to eight flights in one day.