Was it DEI?

There’s a lot of speculation flying around about the horrible collision of the army chopper into the regional jet in DC. One thing is certain – the cause will come out. It always does with air disasters. The gubmint might be gape jawed and sluggish, but NTSA, while slower than we like, typically produces factual results.

Was the Pilot a DEI hire? Probably. Certainly, the door was opened for her. That said, while there are many, many positions in the military where women don’t belong, piloting aircraft isn’t one of them. They can be every bit as competent as men. I’ve flown with women pilots on everything from a widebody jet down to a DeHavilland Otter.

Far as the pilot is concerned, I’m with Divemedic:

Her 500 hours of flight experience is laughably low. He points out that 500 hours is long enough for a pilot to THINK they know enough to handle everything, even when they don’t. I know from my own experience as a SCUBA diver that this is the case. There is a point, right around 40 to 50 logged dives, that a diver becomes confident in their abilities, but that usually comes to an end when the diver gets themselves into a situation that they shouldn’t have been in because they were overconfident in their abilities. That is where accidents happen. I think that was the case here. – Divemedic

But I think DEI had a role, and that role appears to be aircraft traffic control (ATC) at National Reagan. They were understaffed, a supervisor let one leave early. I’m sure ‘mistakes were made’.

What’s been floating around all week is the number of good candidates, that passed with high scores, that were denied positions because white male. If you’re chronically understaffed, you can’t afford DEI. That’s a boutique item right there. Take a look at the Bell Curve. In the DEI pool, how many are capable and intelligent enough to do air traffic control? How many of that pool would want to do that, as opposed to something less stressful? How many even care about the airline industry?

Here’s why I think it was ATC;

When I lived in Northern Va, Washington Reagan (DCA) was my airport. It was, by far, the most convenient. I’ve flown in and out of that airport, dozens, if not a hundred times. Here’s the deal- the runways are short. Behold:

Runway 1/19 runs parallel to the Potomac river. Back in the day, it was only around 6500 feet. They added a few hundred more. There’s a park at the 19 (or north) end, where I’ve spent hours watching jets land. It’s very cool.

When you take off on that runway, the jet speeds up, and at about 3/4 lifts off and climbs like a striped-ass ape. There isn’t room or time to diddle around on takeoff. Both directions, you have a bridge in the way that you have to climb well above. When landing, if from the north, the jet weaves along, following the river, does one final big turn right after the 14th street bridge and lowers for approach. From the south is more boring, since the plane has plenty of room on approach after clearing the Woodrow Wilson bridge.

But with both landings, the hit the reverse thrust and brakes hard soon as the wheels are down. You damn near are thrust to the seat in front of you. They generally have the wheels hit not 50 feet from the end of the runway to maximize what space they have. It’s nearly like a carrier landing.

I love it. It’s exhilarating.

Here’s where I’m going; All those years traveling, I have never once – not once, took off or landed on runway 33 (15/33) in anything other than a prop plane. Back in the day, a Dash-7 or Dash-8, Embraer or some other. Never, ever, a jet. Not even a small one. If you watch the planes at the park to the north, you are staring right at 15/33. Usually what I’ve seen there was private aircraft traffic. Only jets I’ve seen were small private ones.

The runway is a little over 5200 feet, 2/3 of the main runway. The 33 end is the river, the 15 end, a barricade with GW parkway right behind it. If the landing to 33 fails and you climb out, you are headed right at Crystal City, pretty much.

Why did the controller re-route that jet? It was coming from the south, plenty of time to take a circle around if there were an issue. I’m curious why that jet was moved to that runway.

These days I’m less fond of DCA. Even though the airport has been rebuilt, they planned really poorly. There’s no way to get between terminals once you’ve passed security. You have to come out then back in. Last time I was there, they had shuttle busses running between them. Really hokey and inconvenient. Wasn’t a big deal back in the day. But with all the mergers, it is now. You may find your flight moved to another terminal that will take you an eternity to get to.

One way or another, the truth will come out. And these days, I’m guessing heads will roll, as they should.