The pilot of the military Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger airplane over Washington, D.C., in January ignored instructions to change course seconds before the crash, according to a new report.
The report, published by the New York Times on Sunday, detailed the Black Hawk’s exchanges with air traffic controllers in the lead-up to the disaster, which left 67 people dead.
According to the report, the Black Hawk pilot, Capt. Rebecca Lobach, was conducting her annual flight evaluation and her co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, was serving as her flight instructor.
When air traffic controllers informed the Black Hawk that there was an airliner nearby, Lobach and Eaves acknowledged the message and requested to fly by “visual separation,” a common practice that allows aircraft to avoid collisions based on their own observations rather than following instructions from air traffic control.
“The Black Hawk was 15 seconds away from crossing paths with the jet. Warrant Officer Eaves then turned his attention to Captain Lobach. He told her he believed that air traffic control wanted them to turn left, toward the east river bank,” the Times wrote.
“Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet. She did not turn left,” the report said.
More at Fox News
We have no idea what caused her to ignore both the air traffic control tower’s instructions as well as her own instructor’s directions.
But she drove her chopper right into that plane, even making last second adjustments to hit it.
Her girlfriend won’t say if they’d had an argument.
Her time in the Biden White House was over, so there’s two things she could have been upset about.
If she actually believed newly re-installed president Trump was intending to “go after,” gays, that might have been another reason.
Could have been just stubbornness.
But she’s dead so we’ll never know.
D.I.E... says it all!
LOVE IT!
Voted Don 3 times.
1 of many reasons
Let’s talk about the 800# Gorilla Dirty Little Secret that NOBODY wants to talk about ’cause of PC and worries that The DC Swamp and THEIR Media will crucify you for mentioning it.
Ya got to be a Military Pilot to figure out what’s happening here. Capt. Rebecca Lobach was sitting in the left Pilot seat flying an annual check ride of some sort.
(In the AF …. Army too I’d wager, pilots are required to annually get an aircraft proficiency check ride, an Instrument check ride and a mission check …. can you fly the airplane without killing yourself? … can you fly in airplane in the weather using your panel aircraft instruments + navigation equipment? …. can Ya do The Mission … like getting Beans-n-Bullets to the Army or dropping big nasties on Mother Russia? Proficiency and instrument checks were usually done on one local mission and mission checks could be an all-day affair.) This flight is some kind of Mission Check.
Capt. Lobach, 28, was also a Biden White House Military Social Aide which means she was a “Golden Haired Up and Comer” with Political Influence (& Correctness) stamped all over her. She didn’t seem to have that much Flying Time vs. Time in Army …. nor it seems …. time for boyfriends?
Then we have poor Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, 39, who drew the short straw and …. ;-( … I’m guessing that CW2 Eaves had near 20 years of service and knew exactly “What the Score Was” when he got stuck with The Golden Girl that night. The media keeps referring to him as co-pilot and instructor which is technically correct but that night, he was The Evaluator Pilot. On an Eval ride the time for instructing is over and it’s time for the Eval-ee to show competence! CW2 Eaves should have taken control of the aircraft and …… but when an Eval Pilot has to take control that is an automatic FAILED Check Ride for the Eval–ee …. See the problem … ;-(
RIP Victims!!
Let’s talk about the 800# Gorilla Dirty Little Secret that NOBODY wants to talk about ’cause of PC and worries that The DC Swamp and THEIR Media will crucify you for mentioning it.
Ya got to be a Military Pilot to figure out what’s happening here. Capt. Rebecca Lobach was sitting in the left Pilot seat flying an annual check ride of some sort.
(In the AF …. Army too I’d wager, pilots are required to annually get an aircraft proficiency check ride, an Instrument check ride and a mission check …. can you fly the airplane without killing yourself? can you fly in airplane in the weather using your panel aircraft instruments + navigation equipment? …. can Ya do The Mission … like getting Beans-n-Bullets to the Army or dropping big nasties on Mother Russia? Proficiency and instrument checks were usually done on one local mission and mission checks could be an all-day affair.) This flight is some kind of Mission Check.
Capt. Lobach, 28, was also a Biden White House Military Social Aide which means she was a “Golden Haired Up and Comer” with Political Influence (& Correctness) stamped all over her. She didn’t seem to have that much Flying Time vs. Time in Army …. nor it seems …. time for boyfriends?
Then we have poor Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, 39, who drew the short straw and …. ;-( … I’m guessing that CW2 Eaves had near 20 years of service and knew exactly “What the Score Was” when he got stuck with The Golden Girl that night. The media keeps referring to him as co-pilot and instructor which is technically correct but that night he was The Evaluator Pilot. On an Eval ride the time for instructing is over and it’s time for the Eval-ee to show competence!
CW2 Eaves should have taken control of the aircraft and …… but when an Eval Pilot has to take control that is an automatic FAILED Check Ride for the Eval–ee …. See the problem … ;-(
RIP Victims!!
The family wasted no time in scrubbing her social media accounts. Something in there may have provided an explanation for why she did what she did. Suicide?
“I’m in a bad mood, so I think I’ll kill 66 innocent people and myself” is totally in line with left-think.