The military pilot of the helicopter that crashed into the plane over the Potomac was suicidal

Nice try.

Nothing in the article says anything about the pilot being suicidal. It simply details all the miscommunications and failures.

You must be a MAGAt.

OP? You're full of shit. The attached article said nothing of the sort.

And the pilot was a man.

[quote]Capt. Jonathan J. Campos, a 34-year-old raised in Brooklyn who had wanted to fly since an early age, was the pilot.

Blocked.

" The Black Hawk was 15 seconds away from crossing paths with the jet. Warrant Officer Eaves then turned his attention to Captain Lobach. He told her he believed that air traffic control wanted them to turn left, toward the east river bank. Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet.

She did not turn left."

That's intent.

Aww fuck. I hate hearing stories like this. Suicide contemplation is a form of mental illness but I could never understand killing innocent people. Like no matter how down I’m feeling, how could you not think of the little kiddies on the plane. Just everyone. It sucks.

Wait is this all a lie. OP you are trash. Why did you make this up?

OP thinks there's a prize for starting the most inane threads.

R3 Or confusion.

But keep tryin', honey.

OP is sharing what OP thinks. The Times lays out how the pilot had multiple chances to avoid flying into the plane, including one last clear chance. The Times approaches - but then evades - the issue of intent.

I don't.

R8 Your problem is you can't think.

“The Times” makes the funk group seem like serious journalists. Boy or girl bye. You tried it.

OP, you should be ashamed of yourself spreading this lie and propaganda to excuse the dumbfuck administration in power. I hope, one day, you're suicidal and go through with it.

R2, your lacking of reading comprehension is truly shocking. Please stop posting anywhere on social media until such time as you learn to read at a basic level at least.

From the NY Times article:

[quote]Data recently analyzed by the board revealed that National Airport was the site of at least one near collision between an airplane and a helicopter each month from 2011 to 2024.

"At least" one near collision per month for thirteen years? I find that amazing and incredibly disturbing.

This is where Muriel needs to practice censorship. This thread should just be deleted. Because it is blatantly spreading misinformation.

I am genuinely confused by this thread.

R15 Don't be. OP tried to start a lie about an article that had nothing to do with the Potomac helicopter pilot being suicidal.

OP is a sad MAGA cultist.

r15 here -- never mind, please disregard my post.

OP is also:

[quote]The Barbie movie was pretty boring. How would we have fixed it? I’d have all the female characters commit mass suicide in the first 5 minutes.

R18. And his 428 pound ass is probably giggling in Auntie Roo's basement. He's a sick fuck.

OP obviously used the Fox News regurgitation and misinterpretation of the NYT article.

The article is misleading in how it ends. It says there were 15 seconds left before the crash when the helicopter copilot began to tell the pilot he thought air traffic control wanted them to turn left. How long did it take him to say it? Did she reply? Presumably if he was saying, “I think the controller wanted us to turn left” and not “Turn left now, there’s a plane directly ahead,” he didn’t see the plane. The controller had apparently said something about going behind the plane which didn’t get picked up, and didn’t explicitly say to turn left; the controller was also partially cut off. It’s irresponsible journalism on the Times’ part to suggest by omission for a dramatic ending. There is no evidence at all - including in the article- that there were any exclamations of “Why the F aren’t you turning,” or “we’re going to die,” or anything else; the article doesn’t even say how many seconds remained after the copilot spoke, just that there were 15 seconds when he started speaking.

[quote]It’s irresponsible journalism on the Times’ part to suggest by omission for a dramatic ending.

My reading of it is not that they omitted information for a dramatic ending, but because they don't have that specific information, including whether or not the helicopter pilot replied to "I think the controller wants us to turn left" (or whatever that exact quote was).

And....why has the link to the NY Times article been deleted from the OP, along with the gray-out?

Here’s a non-paywalled link to the NYT article.

Fox News referencing the NYT article spinned it to say that she “ignored instructions to change course” while the NYT article said seconds after the Black Hawk crossed over the Tidal Basin the controller informed the Army crew that a regional jet was circling to Runway 33. “Aviation experts said that development may have blindsided Captain Lobach”.

The Fox News account made sure to add in that she was “a military social aide in the Biden administration”.

[quote]The Fox News account made sure to add in that she was “a military social aide in the Biden administration”.

Bastards.

Yep. The MAGAts eat it all up without question R25.

It’s mystifying that the male co-pilot did not grab the controls from the female pilot he was evaluating. Might not have been a career builder as she outranked him but better to not be dead, + all the plane victims. Wonder why she did not change course in response? Seemed as though she was aiming for the plane, was there any motive, history of stuborness, etc?

[quote]It’s mystifying that the male co-pilot did not grab the controls from the female pilot he was evaluating.

I guess he also didn't understand where the plane was. The astounding thing is that, if you watch the videos of this tragic event, it really does look like the helicopter flew directly into the plane that was right in front of them and lit up like a Christmas tree, and it's almost impossible to understand how the people in the helicopter, including the pilot, didn't see it. I think perhaps that aspect of the videos has been partly responsible for the wild theory that the helicopter pilot purposely flew into the plane for whatever bizarre reason.

R22 Probably because OP's headline was intentionally misleading and is a blatant right wing nut job attempt to imply the pilot was a "DEI hire," as the Trump administration has been trying to spin ever since the accident.

The co-pilot told her to turn left. And to drop in altitude. Maybe he lacked imagination to think she would do neither? Then he ran out of time to act. I think he knew they were flying at the plane.

We may never know if she had a motive or if it was an error. That all social media was scrubbed made me wonder if there might have been a mental health issue or something.

Tragic that so many died, shame he did not grab control of the helicopter from her.

R30 Shame that you're so easily swayed by MAGA propaganda.

But, R29, why delete the link to the actual article, which is accurate? If the objection is to the OP's scare headline, then maybe the whole thread should have been deleted and a new one started.

R32 I think when a post gets "FF"ed, any links associated with it go away, too.

[quote]The co-pilot told her to turn left. And to drop in altitude.

That's not quite what it says in the NY Times article, R30. What it says is: "He told her he believed that air traffic control wanted them to turn left, toward the east river bank." Which is quite different, although I'm not sure exactly what is meant by he "believed" that air traffic control wanted them to turn left.

R34 Maybe the air traffic controller directions weren't clear.

Thanks, R33, I guess that's what happened. But on a related note, I find it odd that when posts are FFed, they don't disappear entirely but are still readable even though they're grayed out and have lines through the text. I'm not sure what purpose is served by that.

R36 I think it depends on your settings. If you're set to "Asbestos Eyeballs," the posts are greyed out, but you can still read them. If you're set to "Delicate Flower," I think they're not visible to you.

I could be wrong, though. I'm sure a DL veteran could explain it.

I’m a lifelong Dem, R31. The cause of the crash was pilot error, not mechanical failure. She was directed to lower altitude and turn by the co-pilot but altered neither, it was not lack of information or that they were unaware of the plane. ATC was clear.

I have no idea why she did not react or why the co-pilot did not take control, guess we will never know. He probably assumed she would turn and had no more time or airspace to act.

The video confirms the NYT story, it continued on course and collided, killing many. Whether she froze, was suicidal as some pilots who deliberately crashed have been or if there was some motive, doubt we will ever know.

Very tragic.

R35, the directions of the copilot to lower altitude and turn left were clear. And where the flight path should have been all along. Tragic he did not physically seize control.

The flight path is supposed to hug the shore.

Perhaps he thought a very directive order would not be well received, who knows?

Would be bad enough if just they died but the guy in the back and all the people on the plane, too.

I don’t think the pilot was incapable of lowering altitude or changing course.

She either wanted to die or had some strange emotional reaction to directives from ATC and her instructor. That all of her socials were scrubbed suggests there may have been clues. There have been others who deliberately crashed, one guy into a mountain. The phrasing of the instructor is not a barked order, maybe she was hard to work with. But no mechanical failure or failure to be aware of the jet happened. She, for whatever reason, flew right at it and the instructor, for whatever reason, talked rather than controlled the aircraft himself.

ATC ideally might have redirected jet but it is an extremely busy runway/airport, so that may not have been safe either.

Neither Aztec nor the co-pilot expected her to continue to fly directly at the jet. I suppose training in the future should cover that possibility more for co-pilots. The working theory that those in the helicopter were unaware that they were flying directly at a jet due to NVG or whatever, had been disproved.

That she was a lesbian woman doesn’t matter, others who have acted similarly were men of various ethnicities in multiple countries. LShe was capable of basic flying, that was not the issue. More about mental health, etc may come out if there is civil discovery and could lead to better monitoring. Won’t bring anyone back, sadly.

[quote]The directions of the copilot to lower altitude and turn left were clear.

That may be true, but where did you get that information? Because that's not quite what it says in the NY Times article.

R41, you said this was disproved, but the article doesn’t say it was disproved: “The working theory that those in the helicopter were unaware that they were flying directly at a jet due to NVG or whatever, had been disproved.“

The article just says that the instructor/co-pilot said that he believed the air traffic controller wanted them to turn left. Significant word: “believed” - meaning he wasn’t sure. The connection was cut off when the controller said this, according to the audio.

The quote about them supposedly having the plane in sight is unchanged from January. They had a plane in sight, but it was never clear they were looking at the right plane. Both near collisions and flying above altitude were common occurrences at DCA; there are also citations in the article talking about failures of visual separation.

“In the meantime, data recently analyzed by the board revealed that National Airport was the site of at least one near collision between an airplane and a helicopter each month from 2011 to 2024. Two-thirds of the incidents occurred at night, and more than half may have involved helicopters flying above their maximum designated altitude.“

As the article mentions, there was an airplane that had just taken off from Runway 1 right before the collision in addition to the airplane that crashed. Runway 1 and Runway 33 are physically the same runway, different ends. Runway 1 is oriented north and Runway 33 is oriented south. Wichita is southwest of DC; the jet that crashed, which had been flying northeast, was originally scheduled to land on runway 1, and then “circled” to runway 33.

You can see the approach on radar. The helicopter and the plane were flying close to each other but the collision happened in part because the plane turned into the path of the helicopter; the helicopter, if it had turned slightly left, would have been MORE on a collision course with the plane if the plane had continued straight without turning. Keeping in mind also the fact that runway 33 was rarely used (4-5 percent of the time) and that the plane and the helicopter were not in touch with each other, and this looks like an accident.

The female pilot was in charge of assisting sexual assault victims, and her social media was taken down because of comments made on it immediately after the crash. There is nothing about her indicating she was suicidal or would have wanted to kill 67 people in a last minute diverted plane.

The flight path was always lower and along the shore. That is where she always should have been.

She did not react to the words of the co-pilot which would have restored them to that path and lower altitude. There is no indication she was incapable of flying the aircraft and carrying out those maneuvers.

Future training of instructors and co-pilots should emphasize a more active role, who was senior and those types of politics be damned. I think that is what led to the more “polite” speech on his part. Grabbing the controls would have saved many lives. They were too close for words to resolve the issue, when she did not course correct instantly the instructor should have done so and been less deferential.

Perhaps she did not understand or perhaps she froze or maybe something else was going on. The NVG did not help. It’s very tragic. I believe the instructor saw the jet.