A Black Hawk helicopter was training to evacuate officials in a catastrophic event. Then it collided with a passenger plane
The Black Hawk military helicopter involved in Wednesday’s midair collision in Washingon, DC, was training to evacuate government officials in the case of a catastrophic event when it crashed into an American Airlines regional passenger plane – and was involved with a catastrophe of its own.
Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for the Army’s aviation directorate, told reporters on Thursday the pilots were training for a scenario when “something really bad happens in this area, and we need to move our senior leaders.” That evacuation would be part of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as “a continuity of government mission.”
To carry out such an evacuation, Koziol added, pilots “do need to be able to understand the environment, the air traffic, the routes, to ensure the safe travel of our senior leaders throughout our government.”
The crash is thought to have killed 67 people, including three Army aviators in the Black Hawk: Capt. Rebecca Lobach, 28, who was identified Saturday; Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Lloyd Eaves, 39. While the Army released the names of the other two soldiers on board the Black Hawk on Friday, Lobach’s name had been withheld at her family’s request.
Pilots who fly with the 12th Aviation Battalion, based out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, frequently fly along the Potomac River and past DC’s Reagan National Airport for various missions – often carrying general officers or Army leaders to and from the Pentagon, or other VIPs elsewhere in the Northeast.
However, the investigation into the collision has revealed several details about the Black Hawk’s path, including it may have been flying above its allowed altitude. It also appeared to veer off the prescribed route, which put the aircraft closer to the airport than the standard route.
Brad Bowman, a former Black Hawk pilot and member of the 12th Aviation Battalion who served on September 11, 2001, told CNN that on the route past Reagan, the helicopters drop down to their lowest altitude of the entire flight, with the intention of getting low to “deconflict with aircraft at Reagan.”
“(T)he low level helicopter routes have been in operation for decades – that area is one of the busiest aviation operation centers in the country, if not the world,” said Bowman, who is also a senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It is a concert or orchestra of activity that requires careful communication and cooperation between pilots and Reagan tower.”
“Everyone has to be on their game and follow instruction exactly,” Bowman added.
Meanwhile, reports have emerged that may show the collision is part of a larger problem. In the three years before the deadly collision, at least two other pilots reported near misses with helicopters while landing at Reagan National Airport.
The inadequate staffing at the Reagan airport tower was also hardly an anomaly. Airports around the country have struggled with controller staffing levels for years, according to a CNN review of government data and interviews with aviation experts.
Historic disaster
The midair collision between the Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Eagle Flight 5342 near DC’s Reagan National Airport marks the deadliest aviation disaster in the US since 2001.
Crews are still working to recover the wreckage of the aircraft and bodies of the victims from the Potomac River. The victims include a number of young figure skaters returning from a development camp in Kansas, as well as three soldiers who were aboard the Black Hawk.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the devastating crash and will take about 30 days to release a preliminary report. A final report, which will determine a probable cause, will take much longer, the board said.
But details arising about the crash have pointed to some possible avenues of investigation. The Black Hawk was on a training mission, using specialized corridors for law enforcement, medevac, military and government helicopters in the Washington area. Federal Aviation Administration charts show helicopters in the corridor must be at or below 200 feet above sea level.
However, flight tracking data from the moments before the fatal midair collision appear to show the helicopter flying 100 feet above its allowed altitude, and veering off the prescribed route along the Potomac River’s east side.
Both President Donald Trump and Hegseth raised the issue of altitude.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Friday.
“Someone was at the wrong altitude,” Hegseth told Fox News on Friday morning. “Was the Black Hawk too high? Was it on course? Right now, we don’t quite know.”
The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – known as black boxes – from the American Airlines regional jet have been recovered, the NTSB told CNN. The helicopter’s black box voice recorder has also been recovered with no signs of exterior damage, according to NTSB member Todd Inman.
The NTSB has begun interviewing air traffic control personnel, which will continue for a few days, Inman said.
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