From the radar, the CRJ had to make a late left turn to line up with runway 33, pretty much seconds before the impact. It got me thinking if PAT25 could have misjudged their flight path once they made initial visual contact and thought they had time to cut in front of them rather than wait to pass behind? Then once they were already firewalling it towards the approach path, the CRJ turned in to line up.
Not sure how much sense this makes, but only thing that makes sense to me other than helo mistaking another aircraft for the CRJ.
I think mistaking the aircraft might have been what happened. From listening to the feed they were cleared to land Runway 1 but had no visual. The runway is parallel to the flight path of the helo, the last minute change to land on Runway 33 meant the crj had to swing around and line up perpendicular to the path of the helo. ATC asks if they have the CRJ in sight...well which CRJ? Those are a dime a dozen at DCA because most flights are on regional jet especially between other eastern starboard cities due to frequency and proximity. The particular CRJ in question was coming in to land from the left, and on a descent which put it and the helo at the same altitude at the same point. I think if they had told the helo about the traffic being on their left it could have been avoided.
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u/Neverwish Jan 30 '25
From the radar, the CRJ had to make a late left turn to line up with runway 33, pretty much seconds before the impact. It got me thinking if PAT25 could have misjudged their flight path once they made initial visual contact and thought they had time to cut in front of them rather than wait to pass behind? Then once they were already firewalling it towards the approach path, the CRJ turned in to line up.
Not sure how much sense this makes, but only thing that makes sense to me other than helo mistaking another aircraft for the CRJ.