ACR DH8 TAKES PRECAUTIONARY AVOIDANCE MANEUVER FOR MIL HELI ON APCH PATH TO DCA.

1999-09 · NASA ASRS report 450460

Date: 1999-09 · Aircraft: Dash 8 Series Undifferentiated or Other Model · Phase: approach

Anomalies: atc-issue-all-types|conflict-airborne-conflict|deviation-track-heading-all-types

Synopsis

ACR DH8 TAKES PRECAUTIONARY AVOIDANCE MANEUVER FOR MIL HELI ON APCH PATH TO DCA.

Narrative

ON APCH INTO DCA; WE WERE CLRED BY WASHINGTON APCH FOR A VISUAL APCH TO RWY 15 AT 2000 FT. WE WERE CLRED TO TWR AND UPON CHKING; TWR ADVISED OF A HELI IN THE PENTAGON AREA BUT DID NOT CLR US TO LAND OR RESTRICT OUR APCH. I PICKED UP THE HELI VISUALLY AT 1500 FT ON APCH. HE WAS LOW; JUST N OF THE PENTAGON MOVING E TOWARD THE RIVER. IT APPEARED TO BE A MIL UH-1 TYPE HELI. SHORT OF THE RIVER; THE HELI TURNED S TOWARD THE ARPT. AS WE APCHED THE PENTAGON AT 700-800 FT ALT; THE HELI TURNED W AND CROSSED THE FINAL APCH COURSE AT GLIDE PATH ALT IN FRONT OF US. I DEVIATED SLIGHTLY L OF THE RWY CTRLINE TO GET MORE DISTANCE BEHIND THE HELI AND CONSIDERED A GAR. WE WERE ABLE TO STAY AT A SAFE DISTANCE AND COMPLETE THE APCH. ON SHORT FINAL WE REQUESTED A LNDG CLRNC AND RECEIVED A CLRNC TO LAND AT APPROX 200 FT AGL. I ESTIMATE THAT WE PASSED ABOUT 1/2 MI BEHIND THE HELI. OUR ACFT WAS EQUIPPED WITH TCASII WHICH THE RA FUNCTION IS INHIBITED AT LOW ALTS. WE DID NOT GET ANY TCASII ADVISORY. THE TWR WAS VERY BUSY AT THE TIME AND I WAS NOT ABLE TO MAKE CONTACT TO DISCUSS THE SIT WITH THEM DUE TO FREQ CONGESTION. OUR OPS AREA AT DCA IS NOT EQUIPPED WITH ANY GND COM CAPABILITY.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.