Matthew 'Whiz' Buckley
Appearances
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
was what were you gonna say you know well no there wasn't any last minute call you know hey an emergency out of the helo or any issues i think the final calls were like a traffic insight type of thing but john brings up a good point we have no idea what happened in the helo cockpit somebody dropped something hey you take your goggles were they having a split goggle cockpit hey put the goggles on to see how bright the city is and how these things are worthless
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
You have no idea what was going on. Did the crew chief come up and say something? So it is, you know, with three people in the helo, there's potentially a lot going on or a last-minute issue with the aircraft.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
They potentially should, right? Yeah. Not on the Hilo side, but mishap investigators usually start at the top with everything, right? Was it weather? They kind of step through a checklist of, was it this? And it'll be left with just, it's kind of an inverse funnel of what it most likely was. But there's always potential human factors. Last night,
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
You know what, Megan, real quick, the control tower folks, I'm equally as devastated because the folks in the tower, I guarantee you, are second guessing. I think on one of the tapes, you can hear an audible gasp. I've never been to air traffic control school, but I can probably speak with some authority that on day one, they teach you, Let's not have two airplanes hit on your watch.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
So all those folks who are on duty, I'm feeling for them too and the families. Just absolutely devastating.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
Yeah, it's sad. Megan, in 15 years of flying Hornets, I lost 16 buddies and not one of them was a combat loss. So my heart definitely goes out to obviously all the civilians, too. But three Army folks woke up yesterday, threw on their flight suits and did not expect that this happened. And they passed serving their country. So God bless. God bless them as well, too.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
Megan, you nailed it. First of all, good afternoon. And you're right, very, very somber day, just absolutely devastating. But I think you nailed it. When the pilot in command or the pilot in the helicopter said, hey, traffic in sight, it clearly most likely wasn't the same traffic that the air traffic controller was talking about. So a couple of things, in my opinion, happened.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
Once the air traffic controller hears from the Hilo crew, hey, traffic in sight, kind of a mental check in his mind that says, OK, let me go do some other things now. He has that traffic in sight. Clearly, he didn't have that exact traffic insight because he ends up hitting him. Might have had a different traffic insight, might have gotten test saturated, as John alluded to.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
But I've seen what are allegedly the ATC tapes. I'm pretty sure they are the real ATC tapes on X. And when you have two contacts on your scope going towards each other, you got to say something. The controller could have potentially come up and said, hey, PAT-25, confirm that you have traffic left 11, same altitude in sight. So maybe a little bit more directive.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
But as John alluded to, and you certainly said, something, a mishap like this just should not happen. And if you're a white knuckle flyer right now and you're a little worried, it's almost passe to say, but it is a hell of a lot more dangerous driving to the airport.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
This doesn't happen too often, uh, because of the safeguards of the visual lookout that we have of the air traffic control procedures, something broke down. And as John knows in aviation mishaps, we call it a Swiss cheese model, right? All the holes have to align up for a mishap to happen. And it's going to be very interesting to see what the, uh, the different holes are. But, uh,
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
Megan, when I went to Pensacola Naval Air Station as a young naval aviator, they told me a couple of things. Aviation is a self-cleaning oven. You have got to have the most elite, the most qualified individuals in the cockpit and in the tower. Because years ago, CRM, crew resource management, we actually brought the controllers technically into the cockpit. They're kind of a crew member.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
And I'll never forget one of my crusty flight instructors telling me, hey, Wiz, everybody's trying to kill you. including you. So keep your head on a swivel.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
no exactly the the rj crew they were in the zone they were cleared to land gear down flaps down stabilized approach they're looking at the runway environment is there an airliner on there or somebody crossing that they are they're singularly focused if i was the captain of that rj and i heard a potential traffic call and i heard that traffic say hey that guy's in sight done i'm i'm gonna press forward here so nothing
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
on the RJ crew. And Megan, I'll be honest with you, as a naval aviator, after these type of mishaps, I'm torn, right? Because you don't want to spike the football, but also as an aviator, we want to dig into this. Half the crowd says, oh, we need to wait for the investigation. Everybody, nuh-uh. I'm not in that crowd. I'm in the crowd of, this is aviation, man.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
We have got to figure out, what is it? Oxum's razor, right? The most reasonable thing often is. So in this case, The pilot in command of the Army helicopter is you sign for the jet. I was a single seat F-18 pilot. As a young 27-year-old kid, I took a pen and I signed for that airplane. I am the pilot in command and ultimately responsible.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
So on that mission and last night when, hey, traffic in sight, I got this. Again, I hate talking like this in this type of moment, but at the end of the day, it's most likely going to come down to that. Since day one of aviation, Megan, it's don't hit anything in the sky or anything on the ground. That's kind of rule number one of aviation. The controllers do their best to help us out.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
But at the end of the day, it's eyeballs in the cockpit. And as I said earlier, everybody in aviation is trying to kill you, including you. So you have to keep your head on a swivel. And as John alluded to, no error. No, and in and around Reagan, you know, DCA, that whole area, it's almost the Battle of Britain sometimes.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
You have VIP helicopters, you got airliners, and it's very crowded airspace, even though it's the most controlled airspace on the planet, especially after 9-11. Yeah. After this mishap, the hair on the back of the neck is going to stand up with a lot of aviators in a lot of environments that say, hey, man, we have got to keep eyeballs out of the cockpit and let's not hit anything.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Tulsi vs. the Establishment, Kash on Hot Seat, and RFK's Final Push, with Glenn Greenwald, Calley Means, and More | Ep. 996
Mission objective number one.