[ApolloFortyNine]

The official investigation report is of course going to take a bit, but the ATC audio is public, and the helicopter was warned twice about the plane, and said they had a visual of the plane.

Besides never missing an opportunity to 'slam' the opposition, I have no idea why this is being construed as an ATC failure.

[whycome]

That's a system failure if there's no way to verify just what plane the helicopter had in its sights. If continuing with visual separation in the same place, ATC may very well adjust their language. It would help to identify where in the sky the plane is. Or, if there's a potential for cutting it close, just getting the helicopter to hold back until the plane lands? We wouldn't let a plant fly 200ft above another plane in any other situation

[bilbo0s]

Well, I mean, if we can blame DEI?

That's part of the problem here, everyone is just taking political potshots. Which is to be expected. But the danger is you lose sight of the real issue. As you mentioned, the helo pilot's loss of situational awareness. (Did they ever even have situational awareness?)

We can't be getting into these situations where every crisis is met by this typical American emotional reactionism. We can't be blaming the "left", or the "right", or the most ridiculous one which was "it was the black guys somehow". We gotta stop letting that crap distract us.

[mullingitover]

I think the underlying problem was the irresponsible amount of air traffic that has been allowed in that space. It sounds like the pilot made a mistake any pilot might've made and truly it was just a matter of time until something like this happened given the overcrowded nature of the air traffic in the area.

Operator error is only the first 'why' in the 5 whys for this incident.

[pj_mukh]

Can I just admit how insane it feels that in the Year of our Lord Automation 2025, air safety basically amounts to:

"Yo watch out for that big plane on your left" and then hope for the best.

[xdennis]

> Besides never missing an opportunity to 'slam' the opposition, I have no idea why this is being construed as an ATC failure.

Just saying what I've heard. One issue is that the controller allowed visual separation, to begin with. They say he should have known that it was difficult, especially at night, and shouldn't have allowed it.