Likely the windscreen support columns and frames on both A/C prohibited a full view and in this case may have blocked the pilot's views from seeing each other. RIP

thank you

Looks like a child trying to run across the highway during rush hour.

I have no flying experience except as a passenger. I’m curious to know what you think would have happened if the CRJ had not pulled up and left at the last moment? Do you have a hypothesis? Hitting the wing means the Blackhawk was at the center of the aircraft, I’m guessing. Is it even possible it could have missed the CRJ? It seems like it would have hit the fuselage. Would it have passed underneath? Would the Blackhawk have then disrupted the lift of the CRJ by passing so near (I would think a few feet if not inches) underneath? I would really like to know what you think. Feels like it would have been a tragic accident either way.

Military chopper is at fault.

This video isn’t aging well. SnakPak needs to change his channel to SnakPakFakeFacts!

And here I thought night vision googles magnified low lite light at night. Guess I must have been wrong this whole time.

Is it possible the helicopter pilots saw the headlights of the plane just before impact?

Human error plain and simple. You can implement any tech or procedure, but if not acknowledged or adhered to, people die. No different from guardrails put in at hills or culverts on the highway with ends that slide , crush back in, and absorb the collision. They should work, correct? But often times during installation, workers install bolts in the wrong holes. This locks the part of the rail that should slide back benadryl the bolt is in a fixed hole instead of the slotted hole. Great design, should work, lives saved? Nope.. tons of lawsuits..actually a man who lost his teenage child to this and he his around the country inspecting guardrails now in his own time and he constantly finds them installed incorrectly...HUMAN ERROR!

The NTSB reported a pitch UP the last second. They didn't report any added turning and it didn't have time for it to move the wing anyway. The Blackhawk hit the CRJ on the side. The barely perceptible, if at all, pitch up while the jet was still on a LEFT turn to final would've made zero difference. Also, Those rotor blades were looming large over the top of the body of the helicopter. They hit the entire side. The helicopter, the blades, and the explosion all caused damage. The last second pitch up didn't have time to actually move anything like a wing. If the NTSB told us it recorded a slight pitch up in the last second, they would've told us there was a turn if there was one. Besides that, I see no sign of it. I almost have to believe and clap my hands to see the slightest of movement up. I don't think the jet had time to react, even if the pilot had a second to react. It's interesting to speculate, but I don't see your theory working. And I agree with others, it's insane to have helicopters traveling 100 feet below planes on approach, or AT ALL EVER! Complacency let everybody stay in denial about it, but anybody who hadn't become complacent about it is shocked that this was ever allowed, it was a ticking time bomb!!

Yeah, this is wrong. They just pulled the helicopter out of the potomac, and it looks like it hit their craft in the side because of the way that the front is destroyed.

Dude no matter how i looked at it i tried not to see it your way but I couldn’t your totally correct

3 miles? Farther than it looks.

No question. The Tower is at fault! They just didn't do their job! Of course, the fact that the powers that be allowed military maneuvers at a commercial airport is also beyond belief! Next thing you know firemen will be putting out practice fires there!

Your

Thank you for you're clarity!!❤

DOESNT MATTER IF THE BLACK HAWK CLIPPD THE WING. THE PIOLET SHOULD NOT OF HAD TO TRY TO SAVE THE PLANE. THE HELICOPTER WERE FLYING TOO HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR THE HEICOPTER. IT WAS A DIRECT HIT AND THEY WERE FLYING HIGHER THEN THEY SHOULD BE. NO EXCUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree this is a possibility that the helicopter flew in front, but only because you walked us through it. Otherwise I would continue to think the helicopter hit the plane on the side. I appreciate you educating us non pilots about why we see the landing lights of the plane so bright head on and that the helicopter doesn't see the lights as bright as we do. I appreciate you pointed out the reflection of the helicopter landing lights on the water.

Did the helo pilots not properly dial in the correct barometric pressure in their altimeter or were they not properly monitoring their altitude?

What difference does it make??? The plane was on final….they had right of way. They were an innocent victim. ATC and helo pilots at fault here.

As for the view of a the plane light as you closed, my guess would be 2 miles. Although it is very hard to determine.

On top of the Helicopter had strayed off planned route by a half mile

If the helicopter were to have passed in front of the plane like u have stated then why did the helicopter not block out the landing lights on the plane!!! And you never acknowledged the altitude, the helicopter flight data from flightaware had it at 400 feet in a 200 max, which is confirmed by ATSB, and while asserting the helicopter passed in front the plane you are casting blame on the other pilots which was cleared for landing on a perfect glide slope!!!

A superb analysis of this accident. Great work!!

We DO KNOW the altitude the helicopter was at @ the time of the collision, same one the aircraft was at., that has been established.

The left wing "stalled" first.

Only in Washington DC would other aircraft be allowed near the landing/takeoff path of an international airport...however it makes sense since it's the land of idiots.

Regardless of who was at fault, don't we need to understand why the Blackhawk didn't see the CRJ adequately?

If that Blackhawk was in front of the crj the view of the landing lights would have been obscured at some point. They were not in front. Blackhawk clearly at fault.

Hate to speculate, but anytime a rookie pilot like I was as a student, can and will make mistakes. I was lucky in my error but my instructor was aware and took over. In this case rules were not followed and it cost many lives. I am sure the black hawk pilot was talented but just not ready for this yet. DEI will kill again if it is not removed from our lives. Merit only period. Alot of people lost family.

Looking at the wreckage just pulled out of the river, the front is smashed but the tail is intact. So, the helicopter hit the plane…. The right wing of the plane didn’t hit the tail of the helicopter. Also, I watch planes land all the time and I can see them very clearly when they are going 90º to me. So, it say that the plane was hard for the helicopter to see I don’t agree with. Last, the helicopter pilot assumed visual clearance. It was up to her to see and avoid the plane. What is baffling to me is all three on the helicopter failed to see the plane. I can only explain that by assuming they DID see the plane but didn’t know it was trying to land but that seems improbable as well since the airport is right there and the plane is clearly on some type of landing pattern.

Do Military aircraft have TCAS? I know on the CR-J this system is not active below certain altitude especially when planes are landing? Since the military helicopters fly at low altitude they should have TCAS, which would have alerted them to the jet and prevented this terrible crash. Kobe Bryant lost his life on a helicopter as it was not equipped with TCAS. It should be mandatory that all aircraft be equipped with TCAS to prevent avoidable crashes. I know I’m going to hear you say, but it will cost too much money to equip every airplane with TCAS. Well, how much money is a human life worth and in this case 66 people lost their lives because of human error and no TCAS. RIP ❤️🙏❤️

Great analysis, makes it all much more clear 😢

therea are better programs to see the video Maybe we will see someday

there is no way anyone is going to tell me that helicopter didn't run straight into that airplane. it should not have been there.

Wow. This was a brilliant in-depth analysis and explanation justifying the probability of the helicopter flying at an angle into the left wing of the helicopter. This resulted in the helicopter appearing to be structurally more intact, as well as the airliner to completely roll over 360 degrees to the left before hitting the water. Thank you for presenting evidence and clarifying this probability!

Hey snak pak. When I book a flight that will occur in the dark, I choose a window seat. If I’m in the air before sunrise I choose a seat that will look eastward. If I’ll be in the air after sunset, I choose a seat that will look westward. In this way, during the flight I can often see Venus. Sometimes as a bonus I can see Mercury too. That solid light at the end of your video looks like Venus. It’s not blinking like planes usually do. Other possibilities could be Jupiter or the international space station, but I think it’s most probably Venus.

I'm guessing 1000 feet away

Thank you for your expertise. We also know that the Blackhawk was 100' higher than it was supposed to be so that started the consequence of the collision. God bless and thank you again.

This clearly demonstrates that PAT either did not have the CRJ in sight or ignored the ATC order to pass behind the CRJ. This is all on PAT.

Not convinced.

I don't know how it matters which aircraft was in front at the intersection point.

As a person who has never flown anything i can give zero input.Ok maybe 2 objects can occupy the same space.

As a person who has never flown anything i can give zero input.Ok maybe 2 objects can occupy the same space.

Given that to make any judgment and attribute any blame we must wait for the end of the investigation, I only hope that what happened more than once when the US armed forces were involved does not happen again. Among the many episodes I remember one, 1998, Monte Cermis, Italian Alps, a plane of the United States Marine Corps cut the cable of the cable car that leads to the top of the mountain, causing the cabin to fall for 150 meters and causing the death of all the occupants - In the accident 20 people died, 3 Italians and the rest from 5 other European countries, in reality instead of "accident" it is often called "massacre" - It was a training flight, in which the pilots violated several regulations, including the minimum flight altitude and others. - The motivations were simple fun and to make videos of the evolutions in flight - There was the hypothesis of a second aircraft involved in a competition, which however has not been proven. - There was an attempt to hide the evidence by repairing the damage to the wing and tail of the plane at the Aviano base before the intervention of the Italian authorities but it was unsuccessful given the timely seizure order of the aircraft on which fragments of the severed cable were found in addition to the obvious traces of the impact. - The pilots had immediately deleted all the videos made - The 4 military members of the crew were investigated for unintentional and negligent homicide (equivalent to homicide by negligence in the US legal system) - However, the military were removed from Italian justice, repatriated and then only the pilot and the navigator were tried in the US by military justice, who were then (incredibly) acquitted. - Later they were only investigated for obstruction of justice for having deleted the videos of the flight and the commander was sentenced to 6 months in prison and expelled from the armed forces. The relatives of the 20 victims are still waiting for justice to be done

The plane in the video at the last appears to be miles away, if that's a landing light as it appears to be. I can't make out the position lights at all.

No matter all the postering, the black hawk should not have been anywhere near the airliner. The pilot and crew of the back hawk were in the wrong and caused the death of so many innocents.

This was a great analysis and walk through of the visual. Another analysis on X compared the altitude in the final seconds, which also confirms the pitch and attempt to climb.

Excellent breakdown of what happened.