Thursday Ramble: Things that made me think

I read the preliminary report of the National Transportation Safety Board on the mid-air collision at National Airport in late January. In the minutes leading up to the crash, the helicopter was as much as 200 feet above the maximum allowed altitude for the flight path, the flight crew was aware of this well before the helicopter flew into the airliner. The helicopter had descended slightly, but still over 100 feet above the maximum altitude for the flight path at the time of the collision. The airliner appears to have attempted to climb, seconds before the helicopter flew into the underside of the jet. The two pilots and the observer/instructor on the helicopter failed to take proper corrective action on the altitude deviation. 100+ feet is not much, but it was the difference between life and death that night. 

There are other factors in the report. Somewhat limited experience of the helicopter pilots, the two aircraft operating in shared airspace on different communications frequencies, and some disparity in instruments between the pilot and co-pilot on the helicopter. This was essentially a training flight, in high risk airspace, a flight that very likely did not need to be there. 

The immediate impact is extending a prohibition of the use of that helicopter airway for all but emergency flights and Presidential transport.  Giving controllers authority to close the airspace when helicopter flights are necessary, rerouting of non-essential helicopter traffic to avoid crossing commercial aviation flight paths. I have been at National when there was a ground stop for overflight by the Presidential airlift, it only stops things for 5 minutes, only happens a few times a week. These changes should have been made years ago. This was an avoidable accident that many people knew the risk of. 

Another transit item:

NHTSA released a report about compliance issues with an autonomous or robo taxi being tested in San Francisco.  The design is not in compliance with the standards written for a taxi with a driver.  Well duh! Some of the non-compliance issues were a lack of a steering wheel, brake pedal, rear view mirrors, or windshield wipers. The design is 100% driverless.  The report applies the wrong set of standards.  There will never be a driver in this design, so there is no need for a steering wheel, brake pedal, rear view mirror or windshield wiper. They need to look at an emergency override stop system, effectiveness of the radar and video monitoring systems. Those are not in the standards applied.  If you apply the wrong standards, you get a wrong answer. Let me offer and example.  If my doctor does a physical on me using the pediatric standards I will fail miserably. I am not gaining weight fast enough, when you apply the standards of a 6 year old instead of a 60 year old. (The same problem is seen were we use the standards for a 30 year old, on an 80 year old.)  

Well, that is my rant of the week.