Posted On: Wednesday - February 18th 2026 7:43PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Political Correctness Female Stupidity
This will be the last post on this tragic midair collision, unless readers bring up something that prompts one. For links to previous posts, start at this recent post and link backwards.
I’ll try to keep this fairly short. There were 3 parties, if I may, to this mid-air, the Army Blackhawk helicopter going by PAT-25 that day, the PSA (airlines) flight 5342 going by Bluestreak 5342, and the controller tower, that is, in this case the actual “local” or tower* controller himself. (The only woman directly involved here was the right-seat pilot, being trained on this particular mission to carry VIPs when (sorry, if) the SHTF.) There is one very tangentially involved. As for within the control tower, there was a woman brought up in one of the critical findings in the NTSB report.
When it comes to race, there was nobody non-White flying the 2 aircraft, but I can’t tell about the tower controller involved. He sounds like he may be black, but I’m not good with voices in that way. NTSB reports don’t give names. DuckDuckGo wasted my time with the normal search, and 5 seconds and 500 kWhr spent, its “search assistant” AI answered “DCA midair collision tower controller name” with “Sorry, no relevant information was found in our search.” Let’s get to the 3 parties:
The Tower: I’ve had disagreements with others who also know about this business, but I don’t fault the tower controller. Could he have gone beyond normal duties and stared at the two aircraft the whole time? He’d have been negligent for neglecting all else that was going on. (If you read that NTSB created overall transcript, you can see how busy things can get, and this was not abnormal either. Imagine hours of that.)
Should he have decided that no, the whole deal of letting someone down that Route 1 and 4**, was a bad idea when Rwy 33 or 15 is in use. I don’t know if that was his decision. It’s been decided now, of course, by later that night even, but isn’t this something that gets discussed in meetings downstairs? There are Findings in the NTSB, of course. I’m sure he could have just told PAT-25 to hold north at the Chain Bridge from the get-go, but I went over this already… the guy said he had the traffic right away.
There is one point that - OK, this is annoying. That same link to the NTSB report I’ve provided twice now goes to a partially gutted version - yes, the same URL. The whole “Findings” section with its 74 points and a larger “Probable Cause” section are gone. That means my references to certain numbers along with the excerpts can’t be found. As a consolation, there is this HUGE report in .pdf format (for NOW at this link) that is much longer - 317 pages, has many good figures, and is written in plainer English. (For Congressmen perhaps? Can those guys read 317 pages on the way to Epstein Island? That’s what we pay ‘em for.) It’s very interesting - one could spend a WEEK on it.
Sorry for the rude interruption, but this introduces confusion in my 2 previous posts,
… I read in the report about one woman controller in the tower. It’s #18 of the Findings:
In the two minutes before the accident when traffic volume was increasing, the assistant local controller should have prioritized surveillance of aircraft in the air in order to assist the local controller, rather than diverting her attention to the lower priority task of documenting helicopter information, which could have been completed when traffic volume and complexity had subsided.They don’t give names, but it says “her”. (The writer could have written “they” per the long-term feminist pronoun screwage, but they obviously have good people there at the NTSB.). She was doing so not so time-critical duties - documenting things, and could have been assisting the one controller. Perhaps the two could have split off the helo frequency from the normal tower one. Was it the supervisor’s job to decide this? Was he a White man? I don’t know, but that is too minor, IMO, and deep into this.
The CRJ-700: The NTSB has not had, and I have not had, ANY criticisms of the flight crew of PSA 5342. That’s all about them.
The Blackhawk helicopter: This is the only of the 3 where I can see some D.I.E.-influenced screwage. It was the White male Instructor Pilot who did the most negligent act here, saying twice that he had the traffic pointed out when NOBODY (using the CVR transcript) even LOOKED.. Even with the handful of work he had, instructing someone who was not so on top of things on a mission that was based on a scenario of AVOIDING everyone else, he just didn’t need to do that.
One could say that having the D.I.E. girlboss star student*** to instruct was a secondary factor. Indeed, the instructor was humorous and gentle rather than authoritarian, as he noted the wrong turn, corrected her altitudes early on (too low - not dangerous but non-compliant with the route) and later tried to get her to come left and down.**** Humor is good, but did he kind of baby her.
Additionally, this girlboss Jessica WAS a helicopter pilot, after all, and she could have asked her instructor if he did see that traffic or “how are we going to maintain a visual with these on?” (The night vision goggles.) She wasn’t assertive because she was pretty rusty, IMO. Was she never that good but passed along anyway? It seemed all she could do to fly the thing, nevermind looking at any chart or screen to navigate with. That’s probably going too far with speculation.
Were there another non-D.I.E. pilot there instead, would this have happened? We kinda all know that, just by the way the old AA, now D.I.E., business works, it’s the case that someone in that same position would be MORE competent were he a White man. I don’t know. They may have BOTH just blown off the traffic call with “request visual separation”. Who does that? Then too, he probably would not have been so dependent on the instructor. He would have had more brainpower left to think about that big mistake being made and speak up.
The Army? About military flying in general, that’s another point here. I don’t know if I could ever land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier at night… or the daytime. I doubt I could fly a tight formation as they do, leaving the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds aside… forever! However, I’m of the opinion that the military is given more slack that the civilian world when it comes to compliance with the rules, and I’m not talking about during wartime. It’s also my opinion that people in general think the military pilots are in general better than civilians. In my experience, that’s not the case. (That’d be another post.) I also think that the air traffic controllers might think that… or they used to before this tragic collision.
Readers well know that Peak Stupidity is not shy. We rail often against the whole D.I.E. program and its precursor, AA often, and for various reasons. They still hold. The fewer White men, proportionately, running things in this country, the less competence you will see and deal with, PERIOD. This decline has been slow, but it could speed up to resemble that last decade of South Africa. Were they not too stupid or proud to understand, ANYONE, of any race or sex, would be able to see that this is not a good thing.
That all said, I would not chalk up the DCA midair collision last year as a direct result of D.I.E. It was one of the contributing factors though, yes.
* This is as opposed to others who might be working in the tower, a ground controller, clearance delivery (usually combined with ground), and often an approach controller at a smaller airport at night, i.e. just the one guy.
** I don’t know where #1 ends and #4 starts, but I’m talking about whichever includes going right down the Potomac passing just east of DCA.
*** She WAS, after all, as most followers of this story would know, a political figure of sorts, having worked in another capacity more directly under Brandon. (Actually, that night, she was a week into working more indirectly for Donald Trump.) She was a power girlboss, as it were, I would imagine pretty well-known as that to her instructor.
**** I didn’t get into this before, but that one of the 2 altimeters may have read low by 100 ft - I assume her side - would have caused some of these instructions to have been confusing. “Go to 200.”, and she’s thinking “I’m AT 200!”
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[UPDATED 02/19:] Added a link from the web archive site to restore the full NTSB report I was trying to refer to. The really large one is still a great source. Added in excerpt I had wanted to before that bold note. Thanks again, Adam Smith!
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Comments:
Dieter Kief
Friday - February 20th 2026 3:20AM MST
PS
Our old freind Emil Kirkegaard "poasted" (eugyppius - a rather new friend) this on X yesterday - - which might add an interesting aspect to your story Mod. - -
https://x.com/KirkegaardEmil/status/2024626719471128927?s=20
So - women and men show different view patterns. - - - Men's views rather fixated on one spot - - women not so much: They look rather braodly / wide angled - - - men want to find/ get at something specific - women want to scan every angle to avoid being caught (etc.). -
Sidenote - - as a photographer - - I experience that. I aloso remember being in art class as a kid and the teacheresse - now â well known artist btw. - - - told us to draw somenhting starting from a single dot - and it wasy right away clear for me, that htis single dot was tghe little light bulb in the front-light of a bycicle... thsi si 50 + ears ago - and very clear in my head - - Ms. Jaeger's delight included . . . (she was young and blonde and clothed in shabby CHIC and - very charming - - smoker and all - - - (think of Joni Mitchell at ca. the same time ... ).
Our old freind Emil Kirkegaard "poasted" (eugyppius - a rather new friend) this on X yesterday - - which might add an interesting aspect to your story Mod. - -
https://x.com/KirkegaardEmil/status/2024626719471128927?s=20
So - women and men show different view patterns. - - - Men's views rather fixated on one spot - - women not so much: They look rather braodly / wide angled - - - men want to find/ get at something specific - women want to scan every angle to avoid being caught (etc.). -
Sidenote - - as a photographer - - I experience that. I aloso remember being in art class as a kid and the teacheresse - now â well known artist btw. - - - told us to draw somenhting starting from a single dot - and it wasy right away clear for me, that htis single dot was tghe little light bulb in the front-light of a bycicle... thsi si 50 + ears ago - and very clear in my head - - Ms. Jaeger's delight included . . . (she was young and blonde and clothed in shabby CHIC and - very charming - - smoker and all - - - (think of Joni Mitchell at ca. the same time ... ).
Moderator
Thursday - February 19th 2026 3:41PM MST
PS: I’ve never had anyone ask me that, Alarmist, but sometimes… the looks on their faces…
Yeah, it’s on him but look at the “Probable Cause“ section in the revised link (take Adam’s one for now, as it’ll be a few minutes) to the first big NTSB report), if you haven’t already. I think the 1st line of the 2nd paragraph is THE cause of THIS wreck.
That 1st paragraph, sure, if that had been in effect, there’d have been no crash. There have been some near-crashes though. I will say that for recommendations, fixing the 1st paragraph criticisms is both easier and a more solid one. You can train people do never call out traffic in sight when they haven’t even LOOKED, but someone else might still do that.
There’s probably some kind of math that describes how all these probable causes and contributing factors are related.
Yeah, it’s on him but look at the “Probable Cause“ section in the revised link (take Adam’s one for now, as it’ll be a few minutes) to the first big NTSB report), if you haven’t already. I think the 1st line of the 2nd paragraph is THE cause of THIS wreck.
That 1st paragraph, sure, if that had been in effect, there’d have been no crash. There have been some near-crashes though. I will say that for recommendations, fixing the 1st paragraph criticisms is both easier and a more solid one. You can train people do never call out traffic in sight when they haven’t even LOOKED, but someone else might still do that.
There’s probably some kind of math that describes how all these probable causes and contributing factors are related.
Moderator
Thursday - February 19th 2026 3:35PM MST
PS: YEP. That’s the one, Adam! Thank you so much. For a couple of posts, I’ll replace the other link with this one, and put an UPDATED note in.
Moderator
Thursday - February 19th 2026 3:33PM MST
PS: From Mr. Kief: “The DEI/woke feminization mentality switch means that lots (and lots) of these reasonable small things - don't happen. - It makes life harder for reason altogether.” Yes, I agree. If you are so used to getting blocked in doing the best things by D.I.E. enforcers, you will give up on being the best.
The small things are looked at by the NTSB, because they want to prevent any one of 74 things from being a contributing factor for any airline wreck in the future. That long report is very interesting.
The small things are looked at by the NTSB, because they want to prevent any one of 74 things from being a contributing factor for any airline wreck in the future. That long report is very interesting.
The Alarmist
Thursday - February 19th 2026 12:11PM MST
PS
I sometimes let friends take the yoke, and when, surprisingly often, they ask, “What if I crash?” I tell them I’m not going to let that happen. I once took the yoke from a one-star for precisely that reason, and my CO had my back for precisely that reason.
Sorry, but the IP gets the ding. Too bad he died.
🕉
I sometimes let friends take the yoke, and when, surprisingly often, they ask, “What if I crash?” I tell them I’m not going to let that happen. I once took the yoke from a one-star for precisely that reason, and my CO had my back for precisely that reason.
Sorry, but the IP gets the ding. Too bad he died.
🕉
Adam Smith
Thursday - February 19th 2026 6:45AM MST
PS: Good morning, Dieter, Achmed,
𝑶𝑲, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝑻𝑺𝑩 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 - 𝒚𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝑼𝑹𝑳. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 ❞𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔❞ 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒕𝒔 74 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 ❞𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆❞ 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆...
How about this one?
http://web.archive.org/web/20260207095308/https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA25MA108.aspx
(Archived on February 7, 2026.)
I haven't finished reading the post yet.
(I'll go do that now.)
Be back soon. ☮️
𝑶𝑲, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝑻𝑺𝑩 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 - 𝒚𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝑼𝑹𝑳. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 ❞𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔❞ 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒕𝒔 74 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒓 ❞𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆❞ 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆...
How about this one?
http://web.archive.org/web/20260207095308/https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA25MA108.aspx
(Archived on February 7, 2026.)
I haven't finished reading the post yet.
(I'll go do that now.)
Be back soon. ☮️
Dieter Kief
Thursday - February 19th 2026 6:43AM MST
PS
Mod. - you wrote - -
"Right, and different from either a court or just news accounts wanting to assign the blame, the NTSB gets into so many minor factors, but often just one of 50 or whatever number of small things would have prevented this."
The DEI/woke feminization mentality switch means that lots (and lots) of these reasonable small things - don't happen. - It makes life harder for reason altogether. Of course this is only a tendency and of course it makes very good senes to point pout the important small things nonetheless.
Mod. - you wrote - -
"Right, and different from either a court or just news accounts wanting to assign the blame, the NTSB gets into so many minor factors, but often just one of 50 or whatever number of small things would have prevented this."
The DEI/woke feminization mentality switch means that lots (and lots) of these reasonable small things - don't happen. - It makes life harder for reason altogether. Of course this is only a tendency and of course it makes very good senes to point pout the important small things nonetheless.
Moderator
Thursday - February 19th 2026 6:22AM MST
PS: I had to hit the button pretty quick and go, Dieter.
Right, and different from either a court or just news accounts wanting to assign the blame, the NTSB gets into so many minor factors, but often just one of 50 or whatever number of small things would have prevented this.
Right, and different from either a court or just news accounts wanting to assign the blame, the NTSB gets into so many minor factors, but often just one of 50 or whatever number of small things would have prevented this.
Moderator
Thursday - February 19th 2026 5:36AM MST
PS: Good morning, Mr. Kief.
“So - there was a DEI girl-boss at the helm on that deadly flight - just under supervision of a decent guy”. Yes, but that decent guy did something wrong that is the primary reason for the crash. Why? I’m not totally sure. Too busy, again, his “student” was not that sharp, and he was busy. However, the right thing wouldn’t have been much more trouble. “No, we don’t have the traffic” (No reason need be given either, BTW - not the tower’s business why not - but I guess that they were wearing the NVG, they were down low to where all the lights look together, they don’t know the layout of DCA and can’t take the time right then to pull up some diagrams… )
“Hold at or north of the Chain Bridge. I’ll get you going in, like, 2 minutes.” (Controllers pick up the modern lingo too sometimes.)
That there could have been a more competent guy in her place. Yeah, that’s something to think about.
“ PPS - - - If it was a court case; we'd have to give her the benefit of the doubt, I assume. - But: A court's decision is necessarily narrower by design than what we are doing here and I'd assume further, that both perspectives - ours and the court's - are worthwhile.”
True, but IMO, D.I.E. was not the probably cause of this crash.
“So - there was a DEI girl-boss at the helm on that deadly flight - just under supervision of a decent guy”. Yes, but that decent guy did something wrong that is the primary reason for the crash. Why? I’m not totally sure. Too busy, again, his “student” was not that sharp, and he was busy. However, the right thing wouldn’t have been much more trouble. “No, we don’t have the traffic” (No reason need be given either, BTW - not the tower’s business why not - but I guess that they were wearing the NVG, they were down low to where all the lights look together, they don’t know the layout of DCA and can’t take the time right then to pull up some diagrams… )
“Hold at or north of the Chain Bridge. I’ll get you going in, like, 2 minutes.” (Controllers pick up the modern lingo too sometimes.)
That there could have been a more competent guy in her place. Yeah, that’s something to think about.
“ PPS - - - If it was a court case; we'd have to give her the benefit of the doubt, I assume. - But: A court's decision is necessarily narrower by design than what we are doing here and I'd assume further, that both perspectives - ours and the court's - are worthwhile.”
True, but IMO, D.I.E. was not the probably cause of this crash.
Dieter Kief
Thursday - February 19th 2026 3:28AM MST
PS
So - there was a DEI girl-boss at the helm on that deadly flight - just under supervision of a decent guy.
The thing with mentality-erosions of approved and reliable if a bit stiff standards - and DEI sure is such an erosion and a very braod scale: - It erodes hierarchies (see Heather Mac Donalsd and Helen Andres and Jordna B. Peterson) - and that is for the sweet moment being - -somehting that is welcome - to kindalike everabody - because: Ya know . . who would not like to be "free 'n' easy"?
- Up until things go wrong.
Core lines for me from your meticulous report Mod.: "Additionally, this girlboss Jessica WAS a helicopter pilot, after all, and she could have asked her instructor if he did see that traffic or “how are we going to maintain a visual with these on?” (The night vision goggles.) She wasn’t assertive because she was pretty rusty, IMO." - - - And these align perfectly well with what I wrote above about DEI's standard-eroding dynamic.
PPS - - - If it was a court case; we'd have to give her the benefit of the doubt, I assume. - But: A court's decision is necessarily narrower by design than what we are doing here and I'd assume further, that both perspectives - ours and the court's - are worthwhile.
So - there was a DEI girl-boss at the helm on that deadly flight - just under supervision of a decent guy.
The thing with mentality-erosions of approved and reliable if a bit stiff standards - and DEI sure is such an erosion and a very braod scale: - It erodes hierarchies (see Heather Mac Donalsd and Helen Andres and Jordna B. Peterson) - and that is for the sweet moment being - -somehting that is welcome - to kindalike everabody - because: Ya know . . who would not like to be "free 'n' easy"?
- Up until things go wrong.
Core lines for me from your meticulous report Mod.: "Additionally, this girlboss Jessica WAS a helicopter pilot, after all, and she could have asked her instructor if he did see that traffic or “how are we going to maintain a visual with these on?” (The night vision goggles.) She wasn’t assertive because she was pretty rusty, IMO." - - - And these align perfectly well with what I wrote above about DEI's standard-eroding dynamic.
PPS - - - If it was a court case; we'd have to give her the benefit of the doubt, I assume. - But: A court's decision is necessarily narrower by design than what we are doing here and I'd assume further, that both perspectives - ours and the court's - are worthwhile.
It sounds like a fun time in art class anyway, with your Joni Mitchell-adjacent teacher(ess), hah.
Your last paragraph leads to something in aviation, it turns out, besides just this one story. From Private Pilot, really Student PIlot on, there has been a big emphasis on “your scan”. Now, there’s your “instrument scan”, which is important too but changing rapidly due to “glass” instruments. One starts of VFR flying though, and the idea is “see and avoid”. It’s also more like “Big sky, small airplane” theory, say, back to the day when there was instrument flying but not much in the way of Instrument Flight Rules yet.
People are trained to scan a certain portion of the sky, move to another, etc., back and forth. That’s all good, but there are other things to be done. Again, there’s is lots of sky, and all the airplanes there are, are small in comparison. A big portion of the mid-air crashes (infrequent to begin with and NOT the major accident cause per the stats) are in the traffic pattern. Planes are coming together into a smaller space.
What’s made things a lot safer are the electronics, such as ADS-B. With a $500 piece of electronics (it varies) one can have the position of the airplanes that have this system on shown on a screen. The airliners have had TCAS for many years which shows the same for all aircraft using the “Mode-C transponder” (old term “4096 transponder”, cause 0-7 settings x 4 discrete codes) and gives alerts and warnings. The latter has been in place a few decades, with the requirement of those transponders within certain airspace coming out of the mid-air crash over Cerritos, California (Los Angeles) in the mid-1980s. The loss of life was 64 people on the Aeromexico DC-9, 3 people in the Piper Cherokee and 15 people on the ground.