In the media> WaPo on 2/13 published "Pilots got 100 collision warnings for helicopters near National in past decade" ... "Nearly a quarter of the warnings identified by The Post involved military helicopters, almost half were medical flights, and the rest involved police departments and private operators."... "MedStar Health, a regional medical provider, said in a statement that when an official near miss has occurred, which is rare, it has reported the incident as required, thoroughly examined what happened and, when appropriate, made changes to prevent a recurrence. The TCAS alerts are a different matter, according to MedStar. For example, they can be triggered in cases when a helicopter might appear to be heading toward an airliner but intends to turn away and head in another direction. Flight-tracking data shows MedStar helicopters on a number of occasions heading toward the Potomac as a plane approached, then arcing to the right toward a heliport before reaching the river."Sharing this wayback audio caught from 12/23/
2023 which illustrates this scenario of a medevac operating in DC and landing Georgetown on the North side of the river / Rwy 19 approach (I don't know whether or not this was logged as one of the 104 events reported by WaPo).
Note specific advisories by the Tower to planes on final approach, which is normal procedure if any helicopter traffic operating over DC in Zones 1/2 or P56 adjacent to (but not intersecting) the river approach to Rwy 19 (typically Medical, USPP, DC Police, Marines); or on the river on Route 1/4 (typically Military, USCG, USPP).
- Medevac Medstar1 is cleared in Zone 2 from College Park to Georgetown, between the two P56A/B prohibited areas ("Split the P's"). DC Police FALCON-1 is also operating in Zone 1 over DC and both choppers are approved for visual separation.
- Medstar is advised of both flights on final for Rwy 19 and affirms visual separation.
- AAL1394 on final for Rwy 19 affirms advisory "you might see helicopter traffic they're at your 10 o'clock about 3 miles headed SW-bound one thousand one hundred has you in sight they are going to be descending maintaining visual".
- 1 minute later, AAL1394 later gets a "brief" RA for the medevac, briefly communicates with Tower who confirmed "that is the helicopter traffic I advised you of, they are behind you and to your left".
- AAL1394 confirms they are continuing to land.
- On the ground AAL1394 explains to Tower "He might have had us but we didn't have him and it just gave us ... a brief RA"; TWR/"Roger if you have any further questions just let me know"; AAL1394/"no just letting you know".
Clip runs from 1839-1846 in realtime and unedited of content on the TWR feed (which combined HELI frequency at that time)
18:39.02 Falcon viz-sep for Medstar
18:39.58 Medstar viz-sep for Falcon
18:40.40 AA1394 landing clearance for Rwy 19
18:41.45 JIA5121 landing clearance for Rwy 19
18:42.00 Medstar viz-sep for AAL1394 and JIA5121
18:42.27 AAL1394 traffic advisory for Medstar, acknowledged
18:43.33 AAL1394 reports RA to Tower; Tower confirms helo behind/left; AAL1394 confirms continuing to land
18:45.25 AAL1394 lands, taxi instructions & RA convo
