Im pretty confident flying in and out of the flight paths if a major airport might have something to do with it. Training?
There’s a fairly significant body of water close by called the Chesapeake Bay that might have been better suited for such training.
Call the fools who thought this was a good idea up to the carpet to answer some tough questions.
The problem - they had already trained in those safer areas. At some point the training wheels come off. She was on a check ride evaluation. Flying into Reagan at night under night vision goggles was going to be her job. That’s what that particular VIP aviation unit does, that’s their reason for existence.
They should have had 4 members of the crew, another crew chief on the left side. That might have saved a lot of lives.
The PIC normally sits in the left seat. NVGs are like watching fuzzy black and white TV through paper towel tubes. Depth perception is nil. On moonless nights virtually nothing can be seen. In a city area like an Airport, it is extremely confusing. The IP screwed up not keeping a handle on everything. Very very sad.