Comment on DC Crash

Blackhawk was flying too high

Check rides are very high pressure. Combine that with extreme multitasking situations and you're in a pressure cooker.. You are normally not very relaxed, but that depends on the check pilot. Some check airmen can make you forget your own name. Some will make you feel comfortable. I've been through many and had both.

I read that the pilots were wearing night vision goggles, in which case, the pilots peripheral vision would have been impaired.

ATC was not very helpful. They did point out the traffic to the helo, which asked them to pass behind the jet. Pilots like to receive positive commands from ATC, not 'keep the traffic in sight.' They would rather get a vector (heading) around the traffic. In any case, the helo was responsible for keeping visual separation with the airliner. The jet was only a few hundred feet off the ground on final approach in positive control while the helo was supposed to be at 200 ft as he passed below the airliner. The jet pilots had the runway in sight and were paying more attention to airspeed and vertical descent rate.

Having seen the radar screen video, the Blackhawk was flying too high, more than 100 ft. high. That would make the jet within 100 feet of the helo as the jet was descending.

Lack of peripheral vision

The helo thought the traffic that the controller pointed out was the airliner that just took off, not the jet that was about to land and almost on top of them. It is important to note that for a brief time both the airliner in question and the helicopter were nose to nose as the jet was making a left turn to final, and in a descent. In that configuration, to the helo, the jet's lights could have blended with the city lights, making the jet difficult to differentiate. It would be easy for the helo to fixate on the traffic departing to the right since he had that traffic in sight, and with their lack of peripheral vision, lost sight of the landing traffic to the left, or never really had that traffic in sight as they were concentrating on the departing airliner on their right AND flying too high.

This flight, as in all training flights, should have been conducted in a designated training area away from high traffic. This was no place for training. With that said, it is not unusual for major airports to have VFR or visual corridors for private planes to transition through an airport traffic area. 

I am not remotely suggesting any foul play, but it was almost like the helo was aiming at the airliner

But they have strict rules for course, heading, and altitude. Another item, I am told, is that Blackhawk helos are not equipped with TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System), an instrument that tells you of nearby aircraft and gives you RAs, resolution advice, heading, and altitude information to avoid collision. The only problem is many units do not work as well at altitudes below 1000 feet AGL (above ground level). Terrain and obstacles can inhibit RAs.

The other issue is workload. The controller working the helo was working two stations.

The fact that the helo was anywhere near the final approach course with the jet at less than 400 feet is amazing. Landing traffic, especially on short final, is supposed to have 'runway authority', that is, they are lined up for landing, the runway is theirs, and all air traffic in the vicinity and between them and the runway is clear. I am not remotely suggesting any foul play, but it was almost like the helo was aiming at the airliner.

I don't claim to be an accident investigator; much additional information will come out in the coming months, but so far, this was an avoidable tragedy, to be sure.