The first of the National Transportation Safety Board’s three days of investigative hearings is underway to help determine what caused the deadly midair collision on January 29 between an Army helicopter on a training mission and American Airlines flight 5342 landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
To me it sounds like multiple relatively minor errors coalesced around tragedy. There is lots of data to inform changes to fine-tune a congested airspace. It also looks like the military’s culture of safety has slipped and they’ve forgotten how intricately of an operation this all is when their operations are do closely intertwined with a commercial operation. That could potentially indicate the need for large systemic change pending further investigation.
What I don’t see is an obvious call for outrage; for heads to roll; to tear down the system to start over. Idk if there’s footage but the article writing makes it sound like Homenday is playing up the drama, but she could also just be passionate in what she’s saying.
I’m seeking comfort in the belief that one of our damn systems in this country still functions. Sometimes we just need to read the post-mortem, make the changes, and let insurance pay the grieving families.
Unfortunately air traffic control has been underfunded and understaffed for multiple decades at this point… It’s no surprise that our aircraft are falling out of the sky now that Trump gutted the FAA, even if this particular tragedy was longer in the brewing.
You’re right that heads may not need to roll - but there needs to be a huge national push to train and hire new air traffic controllers, and to modernise all the ATC equipment at airports. We need to give the profession the support it’s been asking for.
I’ve been flying my whole life so I’m very comfortable with it, and even I’m unwilling to get on a plane if I don’t have to nowadays. I can only imagine the numbers of my company in that, but I doubt I’m alone, and if that attitude is spreading it’s bad news for airlines that are already struggling.
Oh, so it really is just oligarchy keeping us all imprisoned by the same fucking labor rights erosion and workplace pressure we’re getting in every industry. It just stands out to us because people died this time. I’m not sure that makes it stand out to them.
To me it sounds like multiple relatively minor errors coalesced around tragedy. There is lots of data to inform changes to fine-tune a congested airspace. It also looks like the military’s culture of safety has slipped and they’ve forgotten how intricately of an operation this all is when their operations are do closely intertwined with a commercial operation. That could potentially indicate the need for large systemic change pending further investigation.
What I don’t see is an obvious call for outrage; for heads to roll; to tear down the system to start over. Idk if there’s footage but the article writing makes it sound like Homenday is playing up the drama, but she could also just be passionate in what she’s saying.
I’m seeking comfort in the belief that one of our damn systems in this country still functions. Sometimes we just need to read the post-mortem, make the changes, and let insurance pay the grieving families.
Unfortunately air traffic control has been underfunded and understaffed for multiple decades at this point… It’s no surprise that our aircraft are falling out of the sky now that Trump gutted the FAA, even if this particular tragedy was longer in the brewing.
You’re right that heads may not need to roll - but there needs to be a huge national push to train and hire new air traffic controllers, and to modernise all the ATC equipment at airports. We need to give the profession the support it’s been asking for.
I’ve been flying my whole life so I’m very comfortable with it, and even I’m unwilling to get on a plane if I don’t have to nowadays. I can only imagine the numbers of my company in that, but I doubt I’m alone, and if that attitude is spreading it’s bad news for airlines that are already struggling.
Oh, so it really is just oligarchy keeping us all imprisoned by the same fucking labor rights erosion and workplace pressure we’re getting in every industry. It just stands out to us because people died this time. I’m not sure that makes it stand out to them.