Quote:
Originally Posted by mraines
What is your source that the crew was not experienced?
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I said they were not HIGHLY experienced. 1000 flight hours as an instructor pilot (IP) is just an average or maybe less than average point and the 450 flight hours the co-pilot (PI) had is a fairly low experience point, especially when one considers that the co-pilot had been rated for a few years. I'm not saying they were not qualified - just that they were not a "been there done that" crew.
BTW, some on this thread have referred to a third pilot in the cabin. That is incorrect. The third crewmember was a crew chief, a non-rated crewmember. He would have been listening to the comms and had a primary duty to observe the environment and alert the pilots of any traffic and potential hazards. That is, of course, a shared responsibility with the pilots.
To expand on other points. As another poster stated, it is easy to lose a specific light source - the airliner - when there are many light sources in the area (light saturation). This is especially true when wearing NVGs and is why experienced goggle pilots sometimes look under the NVGs to get better situational awareness by looking for the red and green lights associated with aircraft.
Secondly, standard equipped Army helos do not have collision avoidance systems. IF this Blackhawk had TCAS or ADS B it would have been an addition made by that specific unit. I have not seen anything reported to indicate it was so equipped.