Her name and some info was released yesterday. Biden White House Social Aide Identified as Third Soldier in Black Hawk
Ura-ki provided some very good perspectives. Thanks. Anyone who has used night vision knows you have tunnel vision similar to looking through a couple toilet paper tubes. Peripheral vision is low to nonexistent. To see something to your side, your head has to pivot so you are looking almost directly at it. Given there was also a near miss of a military helo and AA regional jet just 24 hours earlier at close to the same location forcing the jet to go around, why the hell did the risk assessment for the training flight not insist on a second crew chief providing additional eyes on both sides of the helo? Seems like a command miss as a contributing factor as well. I’ve been involved in numerous ultralight aviation accident investigations and often it’s not just 1 thing that went wrong but a set of 3, 4, 5 or more things that stacked up together resulting in the accident. Remove just one of those factors and it would have been a nonevent. Seems that might be the case here as well.
Any news on why the one pilots , and families social media was scrubbed from the internet ?? That's not normal is it ?
about the pilot in command Collin Rugg on X: "JUST IN: The third soldier aboard the Black Hawk that crashed into the American Airlines plane has been identified as Capt. Rebecca Lobach, who previously worked as a White House aide in the Biden admin. Lobach, 28, served as an aviation officer in the Army. “We are devastated https://t.co/7IaS5Ln0ex" / X
ya cant ground em, mission is too important. ya have to ensure civilian traffic maintains proper separation. **all** crews military and civilian need to have better situational awareness
I heard a radio interview with another Blackhawk pilot who said a 200 foot maximum elevation above water was scary in daylight. With night vision it would require a skilled pilot to maintain that elevation, and they said "a change of 200 feet in elevation takes seconds."
I have extensive experience with the Black Hawks, especially night flying in Goggles! First thing, both pilots have a display in front of them with a pair of altimeters, one is usually a steam gauge, the other is a digital radar altimeter, and that's for EACH pilot in their respective displays, there is absolutely ZERO excuse for any of the three crew to NOT see those instruments, no matter which version of airframe they are flying! An experienced training pilot would also know that nods over a high density population is a very dangerous evolution, and would likely have instructed the trainee not to use/rely on them in such a case! Having them for later in the flight once your out of restricted airspace would be standard! This was all a serious problem just waiting to happen, and their is no excuses what so ever for this to have ever been been accepted operating procedures! Night flying is it's own special kind of challenge, there is no reason for them to be flying in that airspace under any conditions, let alone at night, and then allowing this, again, not good at all! Bottom line here, that airport should not even be there, and certainly not transiting military aircraft through their controlled airspace, period! Unfortunately, for change to be made, something bad had to happen, and unfortunately, now that it has happened, change will be slow and fought by many who have no skin in the game! All those elites who rely on DCA for its convenience need to STFU and put safety first, and so they are going to have to deal with the new order of things further away from their little fiefdoms!
Lawsuit claims that over 3,000 people applied to FAA and made a perfect score on the entry test but failed basically what amounts to a modern day reverse paper bag test. This is mayor buttplugs legacy, dei crashing a helo into a passenger plane.
So, in other words, because they were white, they were passed over. Three thousand applicants with perfect exams all passed over because they were white. Color me surprised.
I read she had only 500 hrs or so total flight time !! Im an AME-R with endorsements with 4 times that in TFT. Flight is way above her ability with only kiddo hrs .
Its 3,000 over the last 15 years. I bet most were active duty or reserve ATC. Back about 2012 I would go hangout in the tower when things on the ground were slow. Probably about 80% of ATC were white guys back then. I'm still doing my old military job as a civilian. I'm not ATC, too much stress, but it pays good. All the ATC guys back a decade ago their plan was to do an enlistment, get out and make $100k a year.
