Wednesday, 30 April 2025

New Report REVEALS Who Made Deadly Mistake Behind Black Hawk Collision Tragedy

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A new report has just shed some light on the cause behind the tragic collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger airplane a few months ago.

As it turns out, the female pilot of the Black Hawk, Capt. Rebecca Lobach, flat-out ignored directions to change course just moments before the deadly crash that killed 67.

Previous reports noted that Lobach was flying the Black Hawk too high the night of the fatal crash. But now, we know that she also failed to heed instructions from air traffic control to turn left just 15 seconds before colliding with the passenger plane.

Lobach’s co-pilot Andrew Loyd Eaves, who was serving as Lobach’s flight instructor, repeated the instruction from air traffic control. But, for some reason, she ignored him and continued on her path…colliding directly into the passenger plane seconds later.

The New York Times has the original report:

The New York Times examined public records and interviewed more than 50 aviation experts and officials, including some with extensive knowledge of the events, to piece together the most complete understanding yet of factors that contributed to the crash.

Up to now attention has focused on the Black Hawk’s altitude, which was too high and placed the helicopter directly in the jet’s landing path at National Airport. But The Times found new details that show that the failures were far more complex than previously known.

The helicopter crew appeared to have made more than one mistake. Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course…

Direct, immediate intervention was needed that night. Instead of seeing and avoiding Flight 5342, Captain Lobach continued flying straight at it.

Investigators might never know why. There is no indication that she was suffering from health issues at the time or that a medical event affected her during those final moments aboard the Black Hawk, according to friends and people familiar with the crash investigation, which included autopsies and performance log reviews.

Two seconds after the controller’s cut out instruction about passing behind the jet, Warrant Officer Eaves replied, affirming for the second time that the Black Hawk saw the traffic. “PAT two-five has the aircraft in sight. Request visual separation,” he said.

“Vis sep approved,” the controller replied.

It was their last communication.

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, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet.

She did not turn left.

Fox News also reported:

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.

So, despite both air traffic control and her co-pilot giving her orders to change course and avoid the passenger airplane, Rebecca Lobach failed to comply.

The real question here is: why?

Was this just a case of willful ignorance? Stubbornness perhaps?

Did she think she knew better than air traffic control and her superior? She wasn’t gonna listen to him “mansplain” to her?

It would be interesting to hear the audio of what went on in that cockpit…

Did it go something like this?..

Was it just a case of DEI gone terribly, horrifically wrong?

Or, was it intentional?

Either way, this is completely unacceptable.

What a tragic loss of many innocent lives.

It cannot be allowed to happen again.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.

View the original article here.


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