Some things to note here- notice how the helicopter's altimeter reading keeps jumping up and down.

I believe the altitude information VAS uses is rounded to the nearest 100 feet. So an aircraft flying a fairly steady 250 feet will see this figure bounce between 200 and 300 as the actual flight level varies just slightly. I think it's also the distance above ground rather than an absolute altitude above sea level. (I know Juan Browne - Blancolirio - talks often about having to adjust altitude figures for this difference.) If so, it could be varying simply because of variances in the terrain height.

But that climb to 700 feet is almost certainly an actual climb. DC isn't that far above sea level, and the Potomac is essentially at sea level.

One of the commenters on the YT video has it right. If this kind of thing is an everyday occurrence around Reagan National, we are just normalizing a very dangerous situation.

--Peter