Look up the DC HELO chart, route 4. There’s a route that runs right by the approach corridor for runway 33. It mandates at or below 200 feet in that section and the Data suggests the collision occurred at 350 feet, but that is internet ads-b data and not reliable for that level of fidelity. But yes, you can fly helicopters straight through the path of an active airport if they’re talking to atc.
To add on to this: Here is the ATC recording from the time of the collision, though the military is on UHF and this is only VHF so it’s still a bit tricky to fully decipher what happened
Skip to around 16:30 to get to the involved aircraft
The CRJ is Blue Streak 5342 and the black hawk is PAT 25
Look up the DC HELO chart, route 4. There’s a route that runs right by the approach corridor for runway 33. It mandates at or below 200 feet in that section and the Data suggests the collision occurred at 350 feet, but that is internet ads-b data and not reliable for that level of fidelity. But yes, you can fly helicopters straight through the path of an active airport if they’re talking to atc.
To add on to this: Here is the ATC recording from the time of the collision, though the military is on UHF and this is only VHF so it’s still a bit tricky to fully decipher what happened
Skip to around 16:30 to get to the involved aircraft
The CRJ is Blue Streak 5342 and the black hawk is PAT 25
https://archive.liveatc.net/kdca/KDCA1-Twr-Jan-30-2025-0130Z.mp3
The heli was instructed to visually pass behind the CRJ, but beyond that it’s unclear how they managed to fuck it up so badly