A Black Hawk helicopter passed directly in front of a United Airlines passenger jet Tuesday as the plane was landing at John Wayne Airport, federal officials said.
The close call occurred around 8:40 p.m. as a United Airlines Boeing 737, flying out of San Francisco, was approaching the Orange County airport and a Sikorsky helicopter “crossed in front of United’s flight path,” a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said in an email.
In air traffic control audio reviewed by The Times, the pilot of the flight stated that they had received a resolution advisory about the helicopter — an automated alert to climb or descend to avoid a collision.
There is no possible military training mission that involves crossing an approach pattern. None.
The area’s geography of tall seaside cliffs and sharp mountain ridges can contribute to turbulent air and quick weather changes that pose hazards for aviation.
Thanks for the replacement cite. I’ll take BBC’s word for their verification, but that sure looks real to me.
The fact the rotodome is sitting there fairly intact on the ground adjacent to the missing fuselage really looks like this was a direct hit with a munition to the fuselage near there, rather than some sort of shrapnel starts a fire scenario.
Looks like something a continuous rod weapon would do to one in flight. Definitely a score for Iran and likely helped with Russian intelligence. Now it’s lots of good parts for an aging fleet that’s on it’s way out the door.
I think Ukraine is about due for an attack on similar Russian assets.
In various news reports over the years the Ukrainians have whacked a Mainstay or two. Politically it’s also a very weird situation where the trumply US is not a Ukrainian ally in the conventional sense. Our trump’s actions are often abetting Russia against Ukraine. I’m a bit mystified why anyone would think Ukraine ought to carry some water here for the USA.
Back to Iran, but still partly out of scope for this thread:
The E3 is definitely a high value high target and the thorough kill they got is high leverage. But you don’t prosecute a conflict by tit-for-tat plinking your enemy. You prosecute by destroying the stuff that’s most helpful to your goals to destroy.
This isn’t (yet) total war on our side. Decent bet the Iranians recognize it is total war for them. They have no interest in going the way of Ba’athist Iraq.
one could argue the case that never before the USA has achived that much with that little money (and overall risk) in terms of destroying an opponents weaponry … than funnelling their intelligence to the UKR
just remember Russia once had a black-sea-fleet… I def. see some low-key-proxy-wargaming (now on both sides) going on.
… but now back from swimming irons to flying irons …
The Mid-America Flight Museum has announced plans to host a DC-3 Gathering over the weekend of September 19, 2026, at its home base of Glover Field (XS70) in Mount Pleasant, Texas
2024 there was a formation flight down the Hudson & past the Statue of Liberty for those that hopscotched their way over to Europe for the 80th D-Day reenactment. Unfortunately I didn’t know about it but have seen pictures of it from the air from Placid Lassie in their hangar/day room.
I have a friend who’s involved with them so we got a private tour last year; tres cool!
