The Patriot Post® · Black Hawk Pilot Error Among Factors
On the evening of January 29, there was a collision between a commercial flight, American Airlines 5342, and Army Black Hawk PAT 25 at about 275’ above the Potomac River — 75’ ABOVE the Black Hawk’s critical restricted ceiling. Now, 75’ does not sound like much, but in this flight approach corridor, every foot is critical. The Black Hawk flew directly into the path of AE 5342, which was on its designated approach vector, and because of the angle of approach, it was likely not visible by the AA pilots. All 67 aboard both aircraft were killed, leaving a lot of grieving families and friends.
This tragic collision was the first fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial flight since Colgan Air 3407 in February 2009 (49 killed). Fact is, air travel in the U.S. is astoundingly safe — since 2009, more than 10 billion passengers have flown in the U.S. on more than 150 million flights totaling more than 225 million hours in the air.
But that is no comfort to the families of those who perished.
In the wake of the crash, a Signal thread with Black Hawk and Apache helicopter pilots lit up with speculative assessments of the cause of the collision. (No, Pete Hegseth was not in the thread.)
Those pilot assessments ranged from evaluations of Air Traffic Control coms with the two aircraft and the fact coms were inadvertently stepped on by others on the frequency, to limitations of peripheral vision when using Night Vision Goggles, assuming the H60 pilots were using NVGs as is often the case on certification night flights along this corridor.
Unknown factors notwithstanding, within 24 hours, the pilots in this thread — which by then included two former military pilots who are now commercial pilots with cumulative totals of thousands of landings at Reagan International Airport — concluded that the fault was not with ATC and not with the pilots of AA 5342. Their conclusion was that this was a lethal error by the pilot of the Black Hawk, and it was distressing for these pilots to fault one of their own.
One military helo pilot who has flown this corridor many times noted: “DC has a whole network of helo routes and zones designed to organize helo traffic and route it under and around commercial traffic. [This route] goes right down the east side of the Potomac, max altitude of 200’. It is not uncommon for helos to be flying under landing traffic once visual separation is established and with correct altitudes maintained. And if NVGs were in use, that limits [field of vision], which means the pilot has to keep his head on a swivel. From the ADSB data, it looks like the helo was southbound on [this route], as the airliner was on final to RWY 33. The collision took place at about 300’ but the restricted ceiling for the Black Hawk was 200’.”
Again, the consensus was Black Hawk pilot error.
The three soldiers killed on the Black Hawk were from Bravo Company, 12th Combat Aviation Battalion, based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The helicopter’s copilot, an instructor with 1,000 hours, was CWO2 Andrew Eaves, 39. The Black Hawk crew chief was SSG Ryan O'Hara, 28. But who was the pilot?
Oddly, the name of the Black Hawk pilot was withheld until days after the other crew members were identified. The Army officially reported her name was CPT Rebecca Lobach but did not identify her as the pilot in the news release: “Army identifies Third Soldier involved in Helicopter Crash.” Likewise, MSM outlets reported Lobach as the “third crew member” instead of identifying her as the pilot.
The Army says the pilot’s name was not released at the request of her family. However, their grief notwithstanding, her family does not dictate whether or not the name of a pilot of a helicopter flying ABOVE its restricted ceiling directly into the path of a commercial flight on its designated approach vector, then colliding and killing all 67 aboard both aircraft, is released.
Lobach, 28, had about 450 hours in helicopters. But not reporting her name was a disservice to Lobach and the families of all victims, and unnecessarily fueled speculation about Lobach’s qualifications.
Lobach spent a lot of her time while stationed in DC supporting Joe Biden’s VIP White House events, so perhaps that was a factor in not reporting her name.
In a report released by the NTSB this week: “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. Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342… She did not turn left.”
To be clear, despite Lobach’s failure to follow her instructor pilot’s request, the ATC tower bears some responsibility because they are using the most accurate overwatch tools. However, the Black Hawk’s ADS-B transponder was switched off, which meant its exact location was neither apparent to the tower or the approaching AA aircraft. It is not clear who was responsible for turning off that transponder, and that may never be clear.
BG Matthew Braman, director of Army aviation, noted correctly that multiple factors contributed to the collision: “I think what we’ll find in the end is there were multiple things that, had any one of them changed, it could have well changed the outcome of that evening.”
Finally, there was some reflexive emotionally incontinent chatter by Demos blaming Donald Trump for the crash given the shortage of ATC personnel in the DCA tower.
But to make a legitimate case about political policy resulting in a shortage of ATC personnel, consider the lawsuit against the FAA for rejecting more than 1,000 highly qualified applicants because they did not meet the DEI criterion. According to the FAA’s revised 2021 authorization under Joe Biden: “The FAA is fully committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity while maintaining the highest safety standards as outlined in the agency’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2021-2025.”
And a footnote: Notably, the aforementioned 2009 Colgan Air crash occurred a month after Captain Chesley Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles successfully ditched their US Air A320 (Cactus 1549) into the Hudson River, miraculously with no significant injuries. On the evening of the DCA crash, I was watching the outstanding movie account of that ditching, “Sully,” for the first time in since its release in 2016. I met Sully a few years after the ditching of Cactus 1549 and heard his account firsthand. It was somewhat surreal, at the conclusion of that movie, to get a text message about a commercial flight crash into the Potomac River.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776