Rebecca Lobach, pilot on emergency landing of US Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed near Reagan International Airport on January 29. At 165 fatalities, this incident was the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001. Lobach disregarded her instructor’s last-minute instruction to turn around just moments before the crash. This wrong decision would contribute greatly to the terrible crash that occurred. The accident happened during a dress rehearsal for a mission to rescue senior congressional leaders from a Capitol building under attack.
When the flaming crash descended onto a residential neighborhood, Lobach was flying only 278 feet high. Because he had previously stated that the helicopter was at 300 feet. Her flight instructor, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, said it was at 400 feet. The altitude difference was one of a number of communication breakdowns that occurred during the flight. Lobach and Eaves inadvertently keyed their mics while receiving orders from air traffic control. This mistake truncated important communications.
The Black Hawk helicopter that crashed was flying its annual flying assessment and had its transponder switched off. This caused the drone’s position to be poorly tracked by air traffic control. Throughout this short mission, Lobach failed to heed Eaves’ command to change course and prevent a collision with a descending American Airlines aircraft. This failure of oversight was responsible for a chain reaction that ended in a fiery collision, as well as a crash into the Potomac River.
Just moments before the crash, air traffic control tried to verify that Lobach had spotted the oncoming jet.
“PAT two-five, do you have the CRJ in sight?” – Air traffic controller
The circling message came in too late. As it turned out, Lobach and Eaves didn’t need to hear the circling message at all. Perhaps most importantly, their microphones were live to the public when they were given this crucial information.
The Black Hawk was simultaneously above its prescribed surface-level height of no higher than 200 feet for that urbanized area, with Lobach piloting the aircraft. This altitude miscalculation put the helicopter in a dangerously vulnerable position, resulting in it being struck by the jet.
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